reference system

1. 1.

   a system that uses coordinates to establish position

   Synonymscoordinate systemframe of referencereference frame

   Broaderarrangement

   NarrowerCartesian coordinate systeminertial reference framespace-time

   Partscoordinate axis

Questions about reference system

What does reference system mean?

reference system means "a system that uses coordinates to establish position".

What is another word for reference system?

Close synonyms include coordinate system, frame of reference, reference frame. 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.

Is reference system a common word?

reference system is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.