spatial

Alternative forms

• spacial

Etymology

From Latin spatium +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈspeɪ.ʃəl/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈspæɪ.ʃəl/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃəl

Adjective

spatial (not comparable)

1. Pertaining to (the dimension of) space.
   • 1879, William James, “The Spatial Quale”, in The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, volume 5:

     In the one case these are spatial, in the other chromatic, in the third moral; and would be what the Germans call intensiv in a fourth case, if I were to say, "Camphor smells milder than ammonia."

   • 2013 July-August, Fenella Saunders, “Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture”, in American Scientist:

     The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail.

2. (uncommon) Pertaining to (outer) space.
   • 1964, Food Research Institute Studies, volume 4, number 2, page 123:

     It was a land that could no longer be seriously described as underdeveloped, a land that has been able to achieve remarkably high rates of growth in its industrial production and gross national product since 1928, and a land that would shortly send into outer space the first man-made, and eventually also the first manned, spatial vehicle.

   • 2013, Laurent Gosse, Computing Qualitatively Correct Approximations of Balance Laws, →ISBN:

     By following the roadmap suggested by Godunov himself, the next step in order to reduce truncation errors in a context of large gradients should be to set up moving mesh methods; a suggestion from the man who created the scheme by means of which were achieved computations of the Apollo spatial vehicle during its reentry into Earth's atmosphere [20], is most probably worth being worked out!

   • 2017, Greta Gaard, Critical Ecofeminism, →ISBN, page 106:

     According to Peter Dickens, the cosmos has become capitalism's new “outside,” and these “outer space imperialisms” are now seeking “outer spatial fixes”—investments in outer space—to solve the crises of capitalism (Dickens 2009, 68).

See also

• cubic

Anagrams

• aliptas

Etymology

From Latin spatium with suffix -ial.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spa.sjal/

• Audio (France):

  (file)

Adjective

spatial (feminine spatiale, masculine plural spatiaux, feminine plural spatiales)

1. spatial [from 1889]
2. (relational) space, outer space [from 1961]

   ère spatiale ― space age

   débris spatial ― space debris

   voyage spatial ― space voyage

Further reading

• “spatial”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• aplatis