Longitude

//ˈlɒnd͡ʒɪtʃuːd// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Angular distance measured west or east of the prime meridian. countable, uncountable

    "But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea."

  2. 2
    the angular distance between a point on any meridian and the prime meridian at Greenwich wordnet
  3. 3
    Any imaginary line perpendicular to the equator and part of a great circle passing through the North Pole and South Pole. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    Length. archaic, countable, uncountable

    "His shoulders are remarkably sloping, giving an appearance of great longitude to his neck."

Synonyms

All synonyms
meridianabscissaaeronautical chartaltitudeantarctic zoneaphelion

Example

More examples

"This line represents the longitude."

Etymology

From Middle English, borrowed from Old French longitude, from Latin longitūdō (“length, a measured length”), from longus (“long”).

Related phrases

celestial longitudeecliptic longitudelongitude clockgreat circlenorth poleprime meridiansouth pole

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