Precession
noun
noun ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Precedence. uncountable
"But as it will not do to talk entirely at random, as Montaigne does, and Ralph Waldo Emerson tries to do, we must take up some little thread or threads. and string our thoughts thereupon, keeping up also a relation among them of precession and succession."
- 2 the act of preceding in time or order or rank (as in a ceremony) wordnet
- 3 The wobbling motion of the axis of a spinning body when there is an external force acting on the axis. countable
- 4 the motion of a spinning body (as a top) in which it wobbles so that the axis of rotation sweeps out a cone wordnet
- 5 The slow gyration of the earth's axis around the pole of the ecliptic, caused mainly by the gravitational torque of the sun and moon. uncountable
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- 6 Any of several slow changes in an astronomical body's rotational or orbital parameters. countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"The general theory of relativity explains the anomalous perihelion precession of the planet Mercury."
Etymology
From Middle English precessioun, precession, from Medieval Latin prēcessiōn-, prēcessio, from Latin praecēdō.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.