rectilinear
part of speech
adjective (rectilinear)
meaning for a pupil
1) Made of straight lines. tree →
2) Moving in a straight line. tree →
3) (maths) A rectilinear shape has only straight sides, often with right angles, like an L-shape or a rectangle. tree →
sense in the lessons
In maths it describes compound shapes made of rectangles, for example «find the area of this rectilinear shape» — you split it into rectangles and add the areas. In science «rectilinear motion» is movement in a straight line. It tells the reader that there are no curves. Phrases: «rectilinear shape», «rectilinear figure», «rectilinear motion».
examples
- Find the perimeter of the rectilinear shape. tree →
- An L-shape is a rectilinear shape. tree →
- Split the rectilinear shape into two rectangles. tree →
- A circle is not rectilinear because it is curved. tree →
- The car moved in rectilinear motion along the straight road. tree →
- The new library has a rectilinear design with flat walls and square corners. tree →
- Draw a rectilinear shape with six sides. tree →
note
Formal and mostly a maths word. Comes from Latin «rectus» (straight) + «linea» (line). Maths problems: to find the area, split into rectangles and add; for the perimeter, add every side, and work out missing sides by subtracting lengths. It does not mean «rectangle» only.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «rectilinear» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.