| / English Dictionary |
TROPIC
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Either of two parallels of latitude about 23.5 degrees to the north and south of the equator representing the points farthest north and south at which the sun can shine directly overhead and constituting the boundaries of the Torrid Zone or tropics
Classified under:
Nouns denoting spatial position
Hypernyms ("tropic" is a kind of...):
latitude; line of latitude; parallel; parallel of latitude (an imaginary line around the Earth parallel to the equator)
Instance hyponyms:
Tropic of Cancer (a line of latitude about 23 degrees to the north of the equator)
Tropic of Capricorn (a line of latitude about 23 degrees to the south of the equator)
Derivation:
tropical (of weather or climate; hot and humid as in the tropics)
tropical (relating to or situated in or characteristic of the tropics (the region on either side of the equator))
tropical (of or relating to the tropics, or either tropic)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Of weather or climate; hot and humid as in the tropics
Example:
tropical weather
Synonyms:
tropic; tropical
Classified under:
Similar:
hot (used of physical heat; having a high or higher than desirable temperature or giving off heat or feeling or causing a sensation of heat or burning)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Relating to or situated in or characteristic of the tropics (the region on either side of the equator)
Example:
tropical fruit
Synonyms:
tropic; tropical
Classified under:
Similar:
equatorial (of or existing at or near the geographic equator)
Derivation:
tropics (the part of the Earth's surface between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn; characterized by a hot climate)
Context examples:
Most of these countries are in the tropics and subtropics.
(Leishmaniasis, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
He is either a foreigner or has lived long in the tropics, for he is yellow and sapless, but tough as whipcord.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The study by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) examined deforestation in more than 50 countries in the tropics between 2000—2012, and identified regions where deforestation is most and least beneficial.
(Most countries lose out with forest-to-farm conversions, SciDev.Net)
The world's forests are increasingly taking up more carbon, partially offsetting the carbon being released by the burning of fossil fuels and by deforestation in the tropics, according to a new study.
(World's forests increasingly taking up more carbon, National Science Foundation)
He showed me also, in one of his books, the figures of the sun, moon, and stars, the zodiac, the tropics, and polar circles, together with the denominations of many plains and solids.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
It saddens me and gladdens me, the gait with which we are leaving San Francisco behind and with which we are foaming down upon the tropics.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
El Niño shifts the growing season around the tropics, causes winter drought in Africa and South America, and changes the timing of monsoon rainfalls in Asia.
(El Niño linked to widespread crop failures, SciDev.Net)
In the Atlantic Ocean, a giant ‘conveyor belt’ carries warm waters from the tropics into the North Atlantic, where they cool and sink and then return southwards in the deep ocean.
(A new study is the first to measure the time lags between changing ocean currents and major climate shifts., University of Cambridge)
While research has shown higher temperatures from climate change and weather extremes will cut food production, especially in the tropics, scientists are increasingly finding that rising greenhouse gas levels are a threat to food quality as well.
(Planet-Warming Gases Make Some Food Less Nutritious, Study Says, Steve Baragona/VOA)
When we had those meetings in the garden of the square, and sat within the dingy summer-house, so happy, that I love the London sparrows to this hour, for nothing else, and see the plumage of the tropics in their smoky feathers!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
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