adj, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A line or plane that is perpendicular to another.
2. 2
   an extremely steep face wordnet
3. 3
   A device such as a plumb line that is used in making or marking a perpendicular line.
4. 4
   a cord from which a metal weight is suspended pointing directly to the earth's center of gravity; used to determine the vertical from a given point wordnet
5. 5
   A meal eaten at a tavern bar while standing up. obsolete, slang

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6. 6
   a Gothic style in 14th and 15th century England; characterized by vertical lines and a four-centered (Tudor) arch and fan vaulting wordnet
7. 7
   a straight line at right angles to another line wordnet

Adjective

1. 1
   At or forming a right angle (to something).

   "In most houses, the walls are perpendicular to the floor."

2. 2
   Of a style of English Gothic architecture from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, marked by stiff and rectilinear lines, mostly vertical window-tracery, depressed or four-centre arch, fan-tracery vaulting, and panelled walls.
3. 3
   Exactly upright; extending in a straight line toward the centre of the earth, etc.
4. 4
   Independent of or irrelevant to each other; orthogonal.

   "Hey, I'm not unsabotaging anything! This is completely perpendicular sabotage!"

Adjective

1. 1
   so steep as to be nearly vertical wordnet
2. 2
   at right angles to the plane of the horizon or a base line wordnet
3. 3
   intersecting at or forming right angles wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

normalrectangularsteepverticalabruptair line

Antonyms

All antonyms

aslantobliqueparallel

Example

More examples

"Let H be the base of the perpendicular drawn from point A to the line BC."

Etymology

Derived from Middle French perpendiculaire, from Old French perpendiculer, from Latin perpendiculum (“plumb line”).

Related phrases

perpendicular axis theoremperpendicular distanceperpendicular magnetic recordingperpendicular pronounperpendicular recordingperpendicular universeplumb lineright angle

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