Parabola

//pəˈɹæbələ// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The conic section formed by the intersection of a cone with a plane parallel to a tangent plane to the cone; the locus of points equidistant from a fixed point (the focus) and line (the directrix).

    "And it saves his life. As he's buzzing down a curving, narrow canal, a narrow green parabola appears hanging across the water in front of him, suddenly rising out of the water and snapping into a perfectly straight line at neck level."

  2. 2
    a plane curve formed by the intersection of a right circular cone and a plane parallel to an element of the curve wordnet
  3. 3
    Synonym of parable. rhetoric

Synonyms

All synonyms
arcbowcatacausticcatenarycausticcircle

Example

More examples

"What are the zeros of this parabola?"

Etymology

Borrowed from New Latin parabola, from Ancient Greek παραβολή (parabolḗ), from παραβάλλω (parabállō, “I set side by side”), from παρά (pará, “beside”) + βάλλω (bállō, “I throw”). Doublet of parable, parole, and palaver.

Related phrases

conic sectiontangent plane

More for "parabola"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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