orbital
/ɔɹ.bət.l̩/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.59 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of or relating to the eye socket (eyehole).
noun
A specification of the energy and probability density of one or more electrons at any point in an atom or molecule, representable as a wave function.
noun
Example Sentences
- "The 1.2-meter-diameter (4-foot-diameter) telescope has set off on a monthlong journey to its orbital destination of the sun-Earth Lagrange point L2, which is nearly 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) away from Earth and also home to NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Euclid will keep pace with Earth as our planet orbits the sun."
- "The M25 is an orbital motorway around London."
- "The rail orbital routes outside of the M25 and South Coast are challenging. The corridors aren't particularly reliable, and in some places they don't exist. [...] But the reliability and journey times, particularly on the orbital routes: one train an hour from Gatwick Airport to Reading? Surely we can do better than that?"
- "As with most power tools, orbitals can be divided into light and heavy-duty categories."
Etymology
Borrowed from Medieval Latin orbitālis, from orbita (“a track or rut; a circuit, orbit”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix), equivalent to orbit + -al. Doublet of orbitalis.
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɔɹ.bət.l̩/
- British English: /ɔː.bɪt.əl/
Usage
- British usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Astronomy.