Abscissa

//æbˈsɪs.ə// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The first of the two terms by which a point is referred to, in a system of fixed rectilinear coordinate (Cartesian coordinate) axes.

    "The point (3,2) has 3 as its abscissa and 2 as its ordinate."

  2. 2
    the value of a coordinate on the horizontal axis wordnet
  3. 3
    The horizontal line representing an axis of a Cartesian coordinate system, on which the abscissa (sense above) is shown.

Synonyms

All synonyms
abscissabscissaltitudeazimuthcoordinatesdeclination

Example

More examples

"In the point (3, 5) on a two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system, 3 is the abscissa and 5 is the ordinate."

Etymology

By ellipsis from Latin [linea] abscissa, feminine of abscissus, perfect passive participle of abscindō (“cut off”). See abscind.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.