sphere

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

sphere, n. [OE. spere, OF. espere, F. sphère, L. sphaera,. Gr. a sphere, a ball.].

•  A body or space contained under a single surface, which in every part is equally distant from a point within called its center.  [1913 Webster]
•  Hence, any globe or globular body, especially a celestial one, as the sun, a planet, or the earth.  [1913 Webster]

  "Of celestial bodies, first the sun,
  A mighty sphere, he framed."  [1913 Webster]
•  The apparent surface of the heavens, which is assumed to be spherical and everywhere equally distant, in which the heavenly bodies appear to have their places, and on which the various astronomical circles, as of right ascension and declination, the equator, ecliptic, etc., are conceived to be drawn; an ideal geometrical sphere, with the astronomical and geographical circles in their proper positions on it.  [1913 Webster]
•  The extension of a general conception, or the totality of the individuals or species to which it may be applied.  [1913 Webster]
•  Circuit or range of action, knowledge, or influence; compass; province; employment; place of existence.  [1913 Webster]

  "To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in 't."  [1913 Webster]

  "Taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and inclosing her in a sphere by herself."  [1913 Webster]

  "Each in his hidden sphere of joy or woe
  Our hermit spirits dwell."  [1913 Webster]
•  Rank; order of society; social positions.  [1913 Webster]
•  An orbit, as of a star; a socket.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

Armillary sphere, Crystalline sphere, Oblique sphere,. See under Armillary, Crystalline,. -- Doctrine of the sphere, applications of the principles of spherical trigonometry to the properties and relations of the circles of the sphere, and the problems connected with them, in astronomy and geography, as to the latitudes and longitudes, distance and bearing, of places on the earth, and the right ascension and declination, altitude and azimuth, rising and setting, etc., of the heavenly bodies; spherical geometry. -- Music of the spheres. See under Music.

Syn. -- Globe; orb; circle. See Globe.

sphere, v. t. 

•  To place in a sphere, or among the spheres; to insphere.  [1913 Webster]

  "The glorious planet Sol
  In noble eminence enthroned and sphered
  Amidst the other."  [1913 Webster]
•  To form into roundness; to make spherical, or spheral; to perfect.  Tennyson.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

sphere, n. & v.
--n.
1 a solid figure, or its surface, with every point on its surface equidistant from its centre.
2 an object having this shape; a ball or globe.
3 a any celestial body. b a globe representing the earth. c poet. the heavens; the sky. d the sky perceived as a vault upon or in which celestial bodies are represented as lying. e hist. each of a series of revolving concentrically arranged spherical shells in which celestial bodies were formerly thought to be set in a fixed relationship.
4 a a field of action, influence, or existence (have done much within their own sphere). b a (usu. specified) stratum of society or social class (moves in quite another sphere).
--v.tr. archaic or poet.
1 enclose in or as in a sphere.
2 form into a sphere.

Idiom

music (or harmony) of the spheres the natural harmonic tones supposedly produced by the movement of the celestial spheres (see sense 3e of n.) or the bodies fixed in them. oblique (or parallel or right) sphere the sphere of the apparent heavens at a place where there is an oblique, zero, or right angle between the equator and the horizon. sphere of influence the claimed or recognized area of a State's interests, an individual's control, etc.

Derivative

spheral adj.

Etymology

ME sper(e) f. OF espere f. LL sphera, L f. Gk sphaira ball

THESAURUS

sphere

Aldebaran, Canicula, Dog Star, Hesper, Hesperus, Lucifer, North Star, Phosphor, Phosphorus, Polaris, Sirius, Venus, Vesper, academic discipline, academic specialty, acreage, agora, ambit, amphitheater, applied science, area, arena, art, athletic field, auditorium, background, bag, bailiwick, ball, balloon, bear garden, beat, bladder, blob, boll, bolus, border, borderland, bowl, boxing ring, breadth, bubble, bulb, bulbil, bulblet, bull ring, campus, canvas, caste, celestial body, champaign, circle, circuit, circus, class, cockpit, coliseum, colosseum, comet, concern, condition, continuum, course, daystar, demesne, department, department of knowledge, dimension, discipline, domain, dominion, drop, droplet, echelon, ellipsoid, emptiness, empty space, ensphere, evening star, expanse, expansion, extension, extent, field, field of inquiry, field of study, fixed stars, floor, footing, forte, forum, galactic space, geoid, globe, globelet, globoid, globule, glomerulus, gob, gobbet, ground, gym, gymnasium, hall, heavenly body, hemisphere, hierarchy, hippodrome, infinite space, interstellar space, judicial circuit, jurisdiction, knob, knot, level, lists, living sapphires, locale, lodestar, march, marketplace, mat, measure, milieu, morning star, natural science, nothingness, oblate spheroid, ology, open forum, orb, orbit, orblet, order, outer space, palaestra, pale, parade ground, pellet, pit, place, platform, polar star, polestar, position, power structure, precedence, precinct, prize ring, prolate spheroid, proportion, province, public square, pure science, purlieu, range, rank, rate, rating, realm, ring, rondure, round, scene, scene of action, scenery, science, setting, site, social science, society, space, spatial extension, specialty, spheroid, spherule, spread, squared circle, stadium, stage, stage set, stage setting, standing, starry host, stars, station, status, stratum, study, subdiscipline, subject, superficial extension, surface, technicology, technics, technology, terrain, territory, theater, thing, tilting ground, tiltyard, tract, void, volume, walk, walk of life, wrestling ring

ROGET THESAURUS

sphere

Business

N business, occupation, employment, pursuit, what one is doing, what one is about, affair, concern, matter, case, matter in hand, irons in the fire, thing to do, agendum, task, work, job, chore, errand, commission, mission, charge, care, duty, part, role, cue, province, function, lookout, department, capacity, sphere, orb, field, line, walk, walk of life, beat, round, routine, race, career, office, place, post, chargeship, incumbency, living, situation, berth, employ, service, engagement, undertaking, vocation, calling, profession, cloth, faculty, industry, art, industrial arts, craft, mystery, handicraft, trade, exercise, work, avocation, press of business, businesslike, workaday, professional, official, functional, busy, on hand, in hand, in one's hands, afoot, on foot, on the anvil, going on, acting, in the course of business, all in one's day's work, professionally Adj, a business with an income at its heels, amoto quaeramus seria ludo, par negotiis neque supra.

Degree

N degree, grade, extent, measure, amount, ratio, stint, standard, height, pitch, reach, amplitude, range, scope, caliber, gradation, shade, tenor, compass, sphere, station, rank, standing, rate, way, sort, point, mark, stage, intensity, strength, comparative, gradual, shading off, within the bounds, by degrees, gradually, inasmuch, pro tanto, however, howsoever, step by step, bit by bit, little by little, inch by inch, drop by drop, a little at a time, by inches, by slow degrees, by degrees, by little and little, in some degree, in some measure, to some extent, di grado in grado.

Space

N space, extension, extent, superficial extent, expanse, stretch, hyperspace, room, scope, range, field, way, expansion, compass, sweep, swing, spread, dimension, length, distance, size, volume, hypervolume, latitude, play, leeway, purchase, tolerance, room for maneuver, spare room, elbow room, house room, stowage, roomage, margin, opening, sphere, arena, open space, free space, void, waste, wildness, wilderness, moor, moorland, campagna, abyss, unlimited space, infinity, world, ubiquity, length and breadth of the land, proportions, acreage, acres, acres and perches, roods and perches, hectares, square miles, square inches, square yards, square centimeters, square meters, yards (clothing), ares, arpents, spacious, roomy, extensive, expansive, capacious, ample, widespread, vast, world-wide, uncircumscribed, boundless, shoreless, trackless, pathless, extended, extensively, wherever, everywhere, far and near, far and wide, right and left, all over, all the world over, throughout the world, throughout the length and breadth of the land, under the sun, in every quarter, in all quarters, in all lands, here there and everywhere, from pole to pole, from China to Peru, from Indus to the pole, from Dan to Beersheba, from end to end, on the face of the earth, in the wide world, from all points of the compass, to the four winds, to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Region

N region, sphere, ground, soil, area, field, realm, hemisphere, quarter, district, beat, orb, circuit, circle, reservation, pale, compartment, department, clearing, (property) &c 780 (Government), 1 arena, precincts, enceinte, walk, march, patch, plot, parcel, inclosure, close, field, court, enclave, reserve, preserve, street, clime, climate, zone, meridian, latitude, biosphere, lithosphere, territorial, local, parochial, provincial, regional.

Circularity

N circularity, roundness, rotundity, circle, circlet, ring, areola, hoop, roundlet, annulus, annulet, bracelet, armlet, ringlet, eye, loop, wheel, cycle, orb, orbit, rundle, zone, belt, cordon, band, contrate wheel, crown wheel, hub, nave, sash, girdle, cestus, cincture, baldric, fillet, fascia, wreath, garland, crown, corona, coronet, chaplet, snood, necklace, collar, noose, lasso, lassoo, ellipse, oval, ovule, ellipsoid, cycloid, epicycloid, epicycle, semicircle, quadrant, sextant, sector, sphere, round, rounded, circular, annular, orbicular, oval, ovate, elliptic, elliptical, egg-shaped, pear-shaped, cycloidal, spherical, I watched the little circles die.

Rotundity

N rotundity, roundness, cylindricity, sphericity, spheroidity, globosity, cylinder, cylindroid, cylindrical, barrel, drum, roll, roller, rouleau, column, rolling-pin, rundle, cone, conoid, pear shape, egg shape, bell shape, sphere, globe, ball, boulder, bowlder, spheroid, ellipsoid, oblong spheroid, oblate spheroid, prolate spheroid, drop, spherule, globule, vesicle, bulb, bullet, pellet, pelote, clew, pill, marble, pea, knob, pommel, horn, knot (convolution), curved surface, hypersphere, hyperdimensional surface, rotund, round, cylindric, cylindrical, cylindroid, columnar, lumbriciform, conic, conical, spherical, spheroidal, globular, globated, globous, globose, egg shaped, bell shaped, pear shaped, ovoid, oviform, gibbous, rixiform, campaniform, campanulate, campaniliform, fungiform, bead-like, moniliform, pyriform, bulbous, tres atque rotundus, round as an orange, round as an apple, round as a ball, round as a billiard ball, round as a cannon ball.

VB render spherical, form into a sphere, sphere, roll into a ball, give rotundity, round.

World

N world, creation, nature, universe, earth, globe, wide world, cosmos, kosmos, terraqueous globe, sphere, macrocosm, megacosm, music of the spheres, heavens, sky, welkin, empyrean, starry cope, starry heaven, starry host, firmament, Midgard, supersensible regions, varuna, vault of heaven, canopy of heaven, celestial spaces, heavenly bodies, stars, asteroids, nebulae, galaxy, milky way, galactic circle, via lactea, ame no kawa, sun, orb of day, Apollo, Phoebus, photosphere, chromosphere, solar system, planet, planetoid, comet, satellite, moon, orb of night, Diana, silver-footed queen, aerolite, meteor, planetary ring, falling star, shooting star, meteorite, uranolite, constellation, zodiac, signs of the zodiac, Charles's wain, Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Great Bear, Southern Cross, Orion's belt, Cassiopea's chair, Pleiades, colures, equator, ecliptic, orbit, astronomy, uranography, uranology, cosmology, cosmography, cosmogony, eidouranion, orrery, geodesy, star gazing, star gazer, astronomer, observatory, planetarium, cosmic, cosmical, mundane, terrestrial, terrestrious, terraqueous, terrene, terreous, telluric, earthly, geotic, under the sun, sublunary, subastral, solar, heliacal, lunar, celestial, heavenly, sphery, starry, stellar, sidereal, sideral, astral, nebular, uranic, in all creation, on the face of the globe, here below, under the sun, die Weltgeschichte ist das Weltergesicht, earth is but the frozen echo of the silent voice o, green calm below, blue quietness above, hanging in a golden chain this pendant World, nothing in nature is unbeautiful, silently as a dream the fabric rose, some touch of nature's genial glow, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, through knowledge we behold the World's creation.