perpendicular

1. 1.

   a straight line at right angles to another line

   Broaderstraight line
2. 2.

   a Gothic style in 14th and 15th century England; characterized by vertical lines and a four-centered (Tudor) arch and fan vaulting

   Synonymsperpendicular styleEnglish-GothicEnglish-Gothic architecture

   BroaderGothic

   NarrowerTudor architecture
3. 3.

   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

   Synonymsplumb line

   Broadercord

   Narrowerlead lineplumb rule

   Partsplumb bob
4. 4.

   an extremely steep face

   Broaderface

1. 1.

   intersecting at or forming right angles

   “the axes are perpendicular to each other”

   Antonymsobliqueparallel

   Similarnormalorthogonalright
2. 2.

   at right angles to the plane of the horizon or a base line

   “a vertical camera angle”

   “the monument consists of two vertical pillars supporting a horizontal slab”

   “measure the perpendicular height”

   Synonymsvertical

   Similarplumbupendedupright
3. 3.

   so steep as to be nearly veritcal

   “the great perpendicular face of the cliff”

   Similarsteep

Other forms of perpendicular

plural

perpendiculars·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about perpendicular

What does perpendicular mean?

perpendicular means "a straight line at right angles to another line". That is the primary sense; the word has 7 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in perpendicular?

perpendicular has 5 syllables: per-pen-dic-u-lar. The stress falls on "dic". In IPA it is /ˌpɝpənˈdɪkjəlɚ/.

What is another word for perpendicular?

Close synonyms include perpendicular style, English-Gothic, English-Gothic architecture, plumb line, vertical. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of perpendicular?

The recorded antonyms are oblique, parallel.

Is perpendicular a common word?

perpendicular is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.