cline

See also: Cline and -cline

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klaɪn/
• Rhymes: -aɪn

Etymology 1

(deprecated template usage)

Ancient Greek κλίνειν (klínein, “to lean, incline”). Doublet of climate.

Noun

cline (plural clines)

1. (systematics) A gradation in a character or phenotype within a species or other group.
2. Any graduated continuum.
   • 2005, Ronnie Cann, Ruth Kempson and Lutz Marten, The Dynamics of Language, an Introduction, p. 412

     This account effectively reconstructs the well-known grammaticalisation cline from anaphora to agreement, …

Derived terms

• clinal

Related terms

• climate
• clinic
• lean

Etymology 2

From c(ircle) + line; compare circline.

Noun

cline (plural clines)

1. (geometry, inversive geometry) A generalized circle.
   • 2001, Michael Henle, Modern Geometries: Non-Euclidean, Projective, and Discrete‎^[1], page 77:

     Let C₁ and C₂ be two nonintersecting clines. Prove that there is a unique pair of points that are simultaneously symmetric to both C₁ and C₂.

   • 2009, Michael P. Hitchman, Geometry with an Introduction to Cosmic Topology‎^[2], page 64:

     To visualize Möbius transformations, it is helpful to focus on fixed points and, in the case of two fixed points, on two families of clines with respect to these points.

   • 2011, Dominique Michelucci, What is a Line?, Pascal Schreck, Julien Narboux, Jürgen Richter-Gebert (editors), Automated Deduction in Geometry, 8th International Workshop, ADG 2010, Revised Selected Papers, LNAI 6877, page 139,

     Let Ω be a fixed, arbitrary, point. Then circles (in the classical sense) through Ω can be considered as lines. For convenience, such circles are called clines in this section. Two distinct clines cut in one point (ignoring Ω and the two cyclic points); it can happen that Ω is a double intersection point; in this case, one may say that the two clines are parallel, and that they meet at a point at infinity, which is Ω.

Synonyms

• (generalized circle): circline, generalized circle

Further reading

• “cline”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• incel, incle