Dictionary

curvature en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /ˈkɜɹ.və.tʃəɹ/ (General-American)

Etymology

From Latin curvare, from Latin curvatura. See also curve. Displaced native Old English ġebīeġednes.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The shape of something curved.
   • In the first of the movie's many striking images, we share his majestic view from the top, the curvature of the planet and the glow of the horizon brilliantly reflected in his helmet. 2018 October 9, A. A. Dowd, “The Star and Director of La La Land Reunite for First Man’s Spectacular Trip to the Moon”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 16 Jun 2020:
   • Constructional costs are kept to a minimum by the admissibility of heavy grades and sharp curvature. 1946 May and June, “Logging Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 151:
2. (countable, uncountable) The extent to which a subspace is curved within a metric space.
   • A turtle drawing an ellipse would have to turn more per distance traveled to get around its “pointy” sides than to get around its flatter top and bottom. This notion of how “pointy something is,” expressed as the ratio of angle turned to distance traveled, is the intrinsic quantity that mathematicians call curvature. 1980, Harold Abelson, Andrea DiSessa, Turtle Geometry : The Computer as a Medium for Exploring Mathematics, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, archived from the original on 26 Jun 2021, pages 13–14:
3. (countable, qualifier:differential geometry, uncountable) The extent to which a Riemannian manifold is intrinsically curved.

Forms

Deriveds

Darwinian curvature · curvaton · microcurvature · Gaussian curvature · Gauss curvature · isocurvature · anticurvature · miscurvature · Sachs's curvature · Sachs' curvature · retrocurvature · radius of curvature · centre of curvature · center of curvature · supercurvature

Translations (57)

es curvatura (mathematics: the extent to which a subspace is curved within a metric space) · tr eğrilik (the shape of something curved) · ja 曲率 (the shape of something curved) · mk закривеност (differential geometry: of a Riemannian manifold) · lt išlinkis (the shape of something curved) · hu -ferdülés (the shape of something curved) · nb krumning (the shape of something curved) · ang ġebīeġednes (the shape of something curved) · mi ānautanga (the shape of something curved) · fr courbure (the shape of something curved) · ca curvatura (the shape of something curved) · pt curvatura (the shape of something curved) · de Krümmung (the shape of something curved) · es curvatura (differential geometry: of a Riemannian manifold) · nb krumning (mathematics: the extent to which a subspace is curved within a metric space) · fi kaarevuus (mathematics: the extent to which a subspace is curved within a metric space) · mk закривеност (the shape of something curved) · el καμπυλότητα (differential geometry: of a Riemannian manifold) · ar انحناء (the shape of something curved) · tl kakiluan (differential geometry: of a Riemannian manifold) · hu elgörbülés (the shape of something curved) · cs zakřivení (the shape of something curved) · lv izliekums (the shape of something curved) · ko 곡률 (the shape of something curved) · fr courbure (differential geometry: of a Riemannian manifold) · hu görbület (the shape of something curved) · sq lakim (the shape of something curved) · pl krzywizna (differential geometry: of a Riemannian manifold) · hu elferdülés (the shape of something curved) · cy crymedd (the shape of something curved) · nn kurvatur (the shape of something curved) · nb kurvatur (mathematics: the extent to which a subspace is curved within a metric space) · az əyrilik (the shape of something curved) · ru кривизна (the shape of something curved) · nb kurvatur (the shape of something curved) · gl curvatura (the shape of something curved) · ga cuaire (the shape of something curved) · de Krümmung (differential geometry: of a Riemannian manifold) · el καμπυλότητα (the shape of something curved) · fi kaarevuus (the shape of something curved) · el κυρτότητα (the shape of something curved) · nl kromming (the shape of something curved) · hi वक्रता (the shape of something curved) · pl krzywizna (mathematics: the extent to which a subspace is curved within a metric space) · ro curbură (differential geometry: of a Riemannian manifold) · cmn 曲率 (mathematics: the extent to which a subspace is curved within a metric space) · eu kurbadura (the shape of something curved) · fi kaarevuus (differential geometry: of a Riemannian manifold) · pt curvatura (mathematics: the extent to which a subspace is curved within a metric space) · mk закривеност (mathematics: the extent to which a subspace is curved within a metric space) · es curvatura (the shape of something curved) · id lekuk (differential geometry: of a Riemannian manifold) · tl kakiluan (mathematics: the extent to which a subspace is curved within a metric space) · it curvatura (the shape of something curved) · pl krzywizna (the shape of something curved) · nn kurvatur (mathematics: the extent to which a subspace is curved within a metric space) · id lengkungan (the shape of something curved)