Wherever a navigator may be, it certainly would be to his advantage to be able to find the great circle, or shortest course, and the distance, to his port of destination, [....]
Source: wiktionary
Great circle
Synonyms for "great circle" (60 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
More general
5 entriesMore specific
4 entriesCollocations
6 entriesgreat circle arcgreat-circle arcgreat-circle distancegreat-circle navigationgreat-circle pathgreat-circle route
Inflections
1 entriesgreat circles
Derivations
2 entriesSample sentences
3 total sentences available.
The shortest distance between two points on an ocean Mercator chart is not a straight line - it is a curve known as a 'great circle'.
Source: wiktionary
Because the Earth's surface is curved, the shortest distance is actually a curve over the surface called a great circle.
Source: wiktionary