(New Zealand) IPA(key): /dəˈmen.ʃən/, [dəˈmen.ʃn̩], /daɪˈmen.ʃən/, [dɑe̯ˈmen.ʃn̩]
Rhymes: -ɛnʃən
Noun
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dimension (plural dimensions)
A single aspect of a given thing. 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.
A measure of spatial extent in a particular direction, such as height, width or breadth, or depth.
1985 November 19, Erik Sandberg-Diment, “PERSONAL COMPUTERS; DESIGNING IS MADE EASY BY AUTOCAD”, in The New York Times[2], archived from the original on 21 April 2017: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.
1992, Douglas Adams, chapter 17, in Mostly Harmless (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), page 150: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.
2012 January, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, in American Scientist[3], volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 14 November 2012, page 23: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.
A construct whereby objects or individuals can be distinguished.
(geometry) The number of independent coordinates needed to specify uniquely the location of a point in a space; also, any of such independent coordinates.
(linear algebra) The number of elements of any basis of a vector space.
(physics) One of the physical properties that are regarded as fundamental measures of a physical quantity, such as mass, length and time. The dimension of velocity is length divided by time.
(computing) Any of the independent ranges of indices in a multidimensional array.
(science fiction, fantasy) A universe or plane of existence. a machine that lets you travel to a parallel dimension.
1938 July, L. Ron Hubbard, “The Dangerous Dimension”, in Astounding Science-Fiction[4], volume XXI, number 5, Street & Smith, →OCLC, page 105:"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———"
1988 May 2, Rod Loomis, Michelle Phillips, Gates McFadden, We'll Always Have Paris (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Paramount Domestic Television, →OCLC: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.
2016, A.K. Brown, Jumpstart (Champagne Universe Series: Book 1), page 2:He was experimenting with matter transportation through the nth dimension.
Synonyms
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(single aspect of a thing): aspect
(measure of spatial extent): magnitude, proportion, size, scope
(construct whereby objects or individuals can be distinguished): attribute, property
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations. Translations to be checked
Esperanto: (please verify) dimensio
Indonesian: (please verify) dimensi (id)
Korean: (please verify) 차원 (ko)(chawon)
Verb
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dimension (third-person singular simple present dimensions, present participle dimensioning, simple past and past participle dimensioned)
(transitive) To mark, cut or shape something to specified dimensions.
1911, Walter Winston Kenilworth, Thoughts on Things Psychics[5], page 51: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.
1985 November 19, Erik Sandberg-Diment, “PERSONAL COMPUTERS; DESIGNING IS MADE EASY BY AUTOCAD”, in The New York Times[6], archived from the original on 21 April 2017: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.
2008 February 21, Alexander Olch, “For the Moment | Dreams Foretold”, in The New York Times Magazine[7], archived from the original on 26 November 2022: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.
2010 August 11, Jim Robbins, “Portable Housing, Made in Montana”, in The New York Times[8], archived from the original on 17 June 2022:“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.”
2014 November 24, Michael Thomas De Vlieger, “Multiplication Tables of Various Bases”, in The Number Base[9], archived from the original on 6 February 2023, page 43:The first sixty argam form the basis for my own sexagesimal use, in the accounting of my business and in the dimensioning of buildings.
(transitive, programming) To specify the size of (an array or similar data structure); to allocate. Hyponym:redimension
2002, James D. Foxall, Wendy Haro-Chun, SAMS Teach Yourself C# in 24 Hours, page 268:Dimension an array to hold only as much data as you intend to put into it.
Translations
[edit] to mark, cut or shape something to specified dimensions
