Poloidal
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Of, pertaining to, or shaped like a poloid.
"Two different pathways, called poloids, are obtained depending on whether A is considered as the fixed frame, or whether B is considered as the fixed frame. The two poloidal curves roll on each other, […]"
- 2 Between the poles of a magnet.
"A poloidal magnetic field has closed field lines that begin and end on fictitious “poles," as in the case of a bar magnet or William Gilbert's lodestone."
- 3 Having a direction on a torus perpendicular to a line that traces around the outside of a torus, or on a sphere perpendicular to the equator, going through both poles.
"The magnetic field can be written as the sum of a poloidal field and a toroidal field, and many of the concepts of dynamo theory revolve around the question of how to generate a toroidal field from a poloidal field and, conversely, how to generate a poloidal field from a toroidal field."
Example
More examples"Two different pathways, called poloids, are obtained depending on whether A is considered as the fixed frame, or whether B is considered as the fixed frame. The two poloidal curves roll on each other, […]"
Etymology
From poloid + -al.
More for "poloidal"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.