dimension — English Dictionary

Noun

1. A single aspect of a given thing.

   Examples

   This film can be enjoyed on many dimensions - the script is great, the acting is realistic, and the special effects will simply take you aback.

2. A measure of spatial extent in a particular direction, such as height, width or breadth, or depth.

   Examples

   However, tubes of the same dimensions also look like solid cylinders, because their ovals are automatically treated as the top or bottom faces of solids.

   More examples (2)

   I can tell you that in your universe you move freely in three dimensions that you call space. […] After that it gets a bit complicated, and there's all sort of stuff going on in dimensions thirteen to twenty-two that you really wouldn't want to know about.

   We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.

3. A construct whereby objects or individuals can be distinguished.

4. The number of independent coordinates needed to specify uniquely the location of a point in a space; also, any of such independent coordinates.

5. The number of elements of any basis of a vector space.

6. One of the physical properties that are regarded as fundamental measures of a physical quantity, such as mass, length and time.

   Examples

   The dimension of velocity is length divided by time.

   More examples (1)

   On this last point Lenin is inconsistent, for he himself confidently answers various questions of physics: for example, he says that it is reactionary nonsense to claim that there can be more than three dimensions, and all forms of indeterminism are likewise nonsensical.

7. Any of the independent ranges of indices in a multidimensional array.

8. A universe or plane of existence.

   Examples

   a machine that lets you travel to a parallel dimension.

   More examples (2)

   "If a man should wish to be in some other place, it is entirely possible for him to imagine himself in that place and, diving back through the negative dimension, to emerge out of it in that place with instantaneous rapidity. To imagine oneself———"

   DR. PAUL MANHEIM: I have been on the other side. I have touched another dimension. Part of me is still there. LAURA MANHEIM: Help him. DR. CRUSHER: Try to stay calm Dr. Manheim. I don't think it's going to help you're struggling against it. DR. PAUL MANHEIM: My mind is floating between two places. It is difficult to know which is which. There is no way to explain it.

   He was experimenting with matter transportation through the nth dimension.

Verb

1. To mark, cut or shape something to specified dimensions.

   Usage

   • Transitive

   Examples

   More examples (3)

   Nameless and formless the Spirit within shines forth, unconditioned and everlasting. What name is befitting the soul? How shall Infinite Effulgence be manifested? Too great a light blinds the senses. Too great a truth is too exhilarating for the student. The boundless, infinite Sentience, incomprehensibly dimensioned in Being and Intelligence, rests Unseen and Unthinkable in the shore of His Own omnipresent and superomnipresent consciousness.

   The mechanical drawing artist almost automatically lays down a triangle in order to draw a line in the desired place. Data entry for AutoCAD, by contrast, requires you to think in terms of coordinate positions rather than in the customary patterns of dimensioning.

   Some people muse over real estate listings in the Sunday paper, looking at floor plans for apartments they could never afford, looking at an idea of what their life might be like with a properly dimensioned foyer.

   “The shape seems simple,” Bruce Leep said. “But very precise dimensioning is required. It was difficult to figure out how all of these angles come together.”

   The first sixty argam form the basis for my own sexagesimal use, in the accounting of my business and in the dimensioning of buildings.

2. To specify the size of (an array or similar data structure); to allocate.

   Usage

   • Transitive

   Narrower terms

   redimension

   Examples

   Dimension an array to hold only as much data as you intend to put into it.

Noun

1. the magnitude of something in a particular direction (especially length or width or height)

   Broader terms

   magnitude

2. a construct whereby objects or individuals can be distinguished

   Synonyms

   propertyattribute

   Broader terms

   conceptconceptionconstruct

   Examples

   self-confidence is not an endearing property

3. one of three Cartesian coordinates that determine a position in space

   Broader terms

   Cartesian coordinate

4. magnitude or extent

   Synonyms

   proportion

   Broader terms

   magnitude

   Examples

   a building of vast proportions

Verb

1. indicate the dimensions on

   Broader terms

   mark

   Examples

   These techniques permit us to dimension the human heart

2. shape or form to required dimensions

   Broader terms

   shapeform