trajectory
/tɹəˈd͡ʒɛktəɹi/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.61 in modern English
22
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The ordered set of intermediate states assumed by a dynamical system as a result of time evolution.
noun
A course of development, such as that of a war or career.
Example Sentences
- "The USA were dominant but, to England’s immense credit, they repeatedly rallied, refusing to fold. Indeed they could conceivably have gone in level at the interval had Naeher not made an acrobatic, stretching, fingertip save to divert Walsh’s 25-yard thunderbolt as it whizzed unerringly on its apparently inexorable trajectory towards the top corner."
- "It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted."
Etymology
From New Latin trāiectōria f (“trajectory”) (used by Newton), the feminine of trāiectōrius (“of or pertaining to throwing across”), from Latin trāiectus (“thrown over or across”), past participle of trāiciō, from trans- (“across, beyond”) (see trans-) + iaciō (“to throw”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁- (“to throw, impel”)). Middle French and Middle English had trajectorie (“end of a funnel”), from Latin trāiectōrium.
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
flyby trajectory