the great circle representing the apparent annual path of the sun; the plane of the Earth's orbit around the sun; makes an angle of about 23 degrees with the equator; "all of the planets rotate the sun in approximately the same ecliptic"
an imaginary line around the Earth forming the great circle that is equidistant from the north and south poles; "the equator is the boundary between the northern and southern hemispheres"
a circle dividing a sphere or other surface into two usually equal and symmetrical parts
an imaginary great circle on the surface of the earth passing through the north and south poles at right angles to the equator; "all points on the same meridian have the same longitude"
the weather in some location averaged over some long period of time; "the dank climate of southern Wales"; "plants from a cold clime travel best in winter"
the prevailing psychological state; "the climate of opinion"; "the national mood had changed radically since the last election"
any circular or rotating mechanism; "the machine punched out metal circles"
a curved section or tier of seats in a hall or theater or opera house; usually the first tier above the orchestra; "they had excellent seats in the dress circle"
ellipse in which the two axes are of equal length; a plane curve generated by one point moving at a constant distance from a fixed point; "he calculated the circumference of the circle"
something approximating the shape of a circle; "the chairs were arranged in a circle"
a punctuation mark (.) placed at the end of a declarative sentence to indicate a full stop or after abbreviations; "in England they call a period a stop"
the end or completion of something; "death put a period to his endeavors"; "a change soon put a period to my tranquility"
a unit of geological time during which a system of rocks formed; "ganoid fishes swarmed during the earlier geological periods"
one of three periods of play in hockey games
the interval taken to complete one cycle of a regularly repeating phenomenon
a stage in the history of a culture having a definable place in space and time; "a novel from the Victorian period"
scope for freedom of e.g. action or thought; freedom from restriction
the angular distance between an imaginary line around a heavenly body parallel to its equator and the equator itself
an imaginary line around the Earth parallel to the equator
freedom from normal restraints in conduct; "the new freedom in movies and novels"; "allowed his children considerable latitude in how they spent their money"
a splendid assemblage (especially of famous people)
(astronomy) a collection of star systems; any of the billions of systems each having many stars and nebulae and dust; "`extragalactic nebula' is a former name for `galaxy'"