- 1球形的、球狀的
Spherical means shaped like a ball — round in every direction, not just round like a coin. That last point is the whole word: a plate is round, an orange is spherical. It is an adjective, and a fairly formal, technical one; you meet it in science and maths class (spherical mirror, spherical coordinates, the Earth is roughly spherical), in writing about machines and lenses, and in careful description. In everyday talk people simply say round, or say "it's like a ball". Writers often it, because almost nothing is a perfect ball: nearly spherical, roughly spherical, more or less spherical. There is also a set phrase from science teaching, "a spherical cow", used as a joke about a model that is far too simple to be true — you do not need it, but if you meet it, that is what it means.
組成spheric + -al. Spheric goes back through Latin to Ancient Greek σφαιρικός (sphairikos), from σφαῖρα (sphaira) "ball". The -al ending is the same one that makes music into musical.
同家族的字
- spherethe noun: the ball shape itself
- hemispheresame sphere, with hemi- 'half' — half a ball, as in the northern hemisphere
- atmospheresame sphere: the ball of air around the Earth
- spheroidsame sphere, with -oid 'like' — almost but not quite a ball
原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
sphericaladj/ˈsfɛɹɪkəl/
- 1
geometrymathematicssciencesShaped as a sphere; being a sphere.
- The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.
- 2
geometrymathematicssciencesOf, or pertaining to, spheres.
- 3
mathematicssciencesOf a coordinate system, specifying the location of a point in a plane by using a radius and two angles.
- 4
astrologyhuman-sciencesmysticismOf or relating to the heavenly orbs, or to the sphere or spheres in which, according to ancient astronomy and astrology, they were set.
- Knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance.
- 5
mathematicssciencesstatisticsOf a multivariate probability distribution, to have a covariance matrix equal to the identity matrix up to a multiplicative factor.
- a spherical Gaussian distribution
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。