orbital

Borrowed from Medieval Latin orbitālis, from orbita (“a track or rut; a circuit, orbit”) +‎ -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix), equivalent to orbit +‎ -al. Doublet of orbitalis.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɔː.bɪt.əl/, /ɔː.bɪt.l̩/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɔɹ.bət.l̩/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)bɪtəl

orbital (not comparable)

1. Of or relating to, or forming an orbit (such as the orbit of a moon, planet, or spacecraft).
2. (anatomy) Of or relating to the eye socket (eyehole).
3. (chiefly UK) (of roads, railways) Passing around the outside of an urban area.

   The M25 is an orbital motorway around London.

   • 2019 October 23, Rail, pages 22, 23:

     The rail orbital routes outside of the M25 and South Coast are challenging. The corridors aren't particularly reliable, and in some places they don't exist. [...] But the reliability and journey times, particularly on the orbital routes: one train an hour from Gatwick Airport to Reading? Surely we can do better than that?

orbital (plural orbitals)

1. (physics) A specification of the energy and probability density of one or more electrons at any point in an atom or molecule, and can be represented as a wave function.

   Hyponyms: antibonding orbital, atomic orbital, bonding orbital, hybrid orbital, frontier orbital, molecular orbital

2. (chiefly UK) Ellipsis of orbital motorway.
3. Short for orbital sander.
   • 1967, Popular Mechanics, volume 128, number 6, page 166:

     As with most power tools, orbitals can be divided into light and heavy-duty categories.

• inner orbital complex
• intraorbital
• molecular orbital theory
• orbital quantum number

• quantum number

• “orbital”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “orbital”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• tar boil, tar-boil

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ur.biˈtal]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [or.biˈtal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [oɾ.biˈtal]

orbital m or f (masculine and feminine plural orbitals)

1. orbital (of or relating to an orbit)

• òrbita
• orbitari

• “orbital” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

From orbite +‎ -al.

• IPA^(key): /ɔʁ.bi.tal/

• Audio:

  (file)

orbital (feminine orbitale, masculine plural orbitaux, feminine plural orbitales)

1. orbital

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

orbital m or f (plural orbitais)

1. orbital

• órbita
• orbitar

• IPA^(key): /ɔʁbɪˈtaːl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aːl

orbital (strong nominative masculine singular orbitaler, not comparable)

1. orbital

• Rhymes: -al, -aw
• Hyphenation: or‧bi‧tal

orbital m or f (plural orbitais, not comparable)

1. (astrophysics) orbital (of or relating to an orbit)
2. (anatomy) orbital (of or relating to the eye socket)

Borrowed from French orbital. By surface analysis, orbită +‎ -al.

orbital m or n (feminine singular orbitală, masculine plural orbitali, feminine and neuter plural orbitale)

1. orbital

• IPA^(key): /oɾbiˈtal/ [oɾ.β̞iˈt̪al]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: or‧bi‧tal

orbital m or f (masculine and feminine plural orbitales)

1. orbital (of or relating to an orbit)

   Synonym: orbitario

2. (anatomy) orbital (of or relating to the eye socket)

   Synonym: orbitario

orbital m (plural orbitales)

1. (chemistry) orbital

• “orbital”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28