asymmetry

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English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology[edit]

From Ancient Greek ἀσυμμετρία (asummetría), from ἀσύμμετρος (asúmmetros)[1] + -ία (-ía), from ἀ- (a-) + σύμμετρος (súmmetros);[2] equivalent to a- +‎ symmetry.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /eɪˈsɪmɪtɹi/
  • Audio (US)(file)

Noun[edit]

asymmetry (countable and uncountable, plural asymmetries)

  1. Absence of symmetry or proportion between the parts of a thing, or a distinction that produces such a lack of symmetry.
    • 1993, Joseph B. Hellige, Hemispheric Asymmetry: What's Right and What's Left, →ISBN, page 114:
      Despite the generally symmetrical appearance of the two hemispheres, however, a number of biological asymmetries have been documented during the last hundred years.
    • 1994, Roger Ferlet, Alfred Vidal-Madjar, Circumstellar Dust Disks and Planet Formation, →ISBN:
      If the planet is on moderate eccentric orbit (0.01), it creates large-scale azimuthal assymetries which evolve at the orbital velocity of the corresponding resonance, for example at half time the planet velocity for the stronger resonance, the 2:1 one.
    • 1997, American Bar Foundation, ABF Working Paper - Issue 9304; Issue 9426, page 75:
      In this sense, the concern of political economy with assymetries of information among political actors is well-placed.
    • 2014, Amal Amireh, Lisa Suhair Majaj, Going Global: The Transnational Reception of Third World Women Writers, →ISBN:
      Transnational feminists argue that feminists need to understand the material conditions that shape women's lives in diverse locations, particularly in a world "structured by transnational economic links and cultural assymetries" (Grewal and Kaplan, 3).
  2. The lack of a common measure between two objects or quantities; incommensurability.

Translations[edit]

incommensurability — see incommensurability

References[edit]

  1. ^ John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “asymmetry”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
  2. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “asymmetry”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
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