noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The interval of a planet's orbit in which its curtate or shortened distance is less than the true distance.

Etymology

First attested in 1584; borrowed from New Latin curtātiō, from curtō + -tiō.

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