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English
Etymology
Borrowed into Middle English from Old French latitude, from Latin lātitūdō (“breadth, width, latitude”), from lātus (“broad, wide”), from older stlātus.
Pronunciation
Noun
latitude (countable and uncountable, plural latitudes)
- (geography, astronomy, countable) The angular distance north or south from a planet's equator, measured along the meridian of that particular point.
- Coordinate term: longitude
1880, Arthur Herbert Church, Food: Some Account of Its Sources, Constituents and Uses, London: Chapman and Hall, page 72:The oat is hardier than wheat, and ripens in higher latitudes.
2011, Ralph D. Sawyer, Ancient Chinese Warfare, Basic Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 137:Far from the center of Shang civilization, Wu-ch'eng is located well south of the Yangtze at approximately the same latitude as Ch'ang-sha in the west and Wen-chou in the east.
- (geography) An imaginary line (in the form of a circumference) around a planet running parallel to the planet's equator.
- Synonym: parallel
- (figurative) The relative freedom from restrictions; scope to do something.
His parents gave him a great deal of latitude.
1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIV, in Francesca Carrara. , volume III, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 208:"Love!" ejaculated the Comtesse; "And so throw away the chances of a life upon a month of honey!—I say a month, which is allowing a latitude tenderness never took...
- (astronomy) The angular distance of a heavenly body from the ecliptic.
- (photography) The extent to which a light-sensitive material can be over- or underexposed and still achieve an acceptable result.
- Extent or scope; e.g. breadth, width or amplitude.
Usage notes
- When used to refer to distances or imaginary lines around a planet, latitude is relative to the Earth's Equator unless another planet is specified.
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
angular distance north or south from the equator
- Arabic: خَطّ عَرْض (ḵaṭṭ ʕarḍ)
- Bashkir: киңлек (kiñlek)
- Belarusian: шырата́ f (šyratá)
- Bulgarian: ширина (bg) f (širina)
- Catalan: latitud (ca) f
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 緯度/纬度 (zh) (wěidù)
- Czech: šířka (cs) f
- Danish: breddegrad (da) c
- Dutch: breedtegraad (nl) m
- Esperanto: latitudo
- Faroese: breiddarstig n
- Finnish: leveysaste (fi), leveys (fi)
- French: latitude (fr) f
- Georgian: განედი (ganedi)
- German: Breite (de) f, geographische Breite f, Breitengrad (de) m
- Greek: πλάτος (el) n (plátos)
- Ancient: κλίμα n (klíma)
- Gujarati: અક્ષાંશ (gu) (akṣā̃ś)
- Hungarian: szélesség (hu)
- Icelandic: breiddargráða (is) f
- Ido: latitudo (io)
- Italian: latitudine (it) f
- Japanese: 緯度 (ja) (いど, ido), ラチチュード (rachichūdo)
- Korean: 위도 (ko) (wido)
- Latin: lātitūdō f
- Latvian: platums m
- Lithuanian: platuma f
- Macedonian: ши́рина f (šírina), геогра́фска ши́рина f (geográfska šírina)
- Malay: latitud, garisan lintang
- Manx: dowan-lheead
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: breddegrad (no) m, polhøyde m or f
- Nynorsk: breiddegrad (nn) m or f, polhøgde f
- Plautdietsch: Breed f
- Polish: szerokość (pl) f, szerokość geograficzna (pl) f
- Portuguese: latitude (pt) f
- Romanian: latitudine (ro) f
- Russian: широта́ (ru) f (širotá)
- Scottish Gaelic: domhan-leud m
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: ширина f
- Roman: širina (sh) f
- Slovak: zemepisná šírka f
- Slovene: širina (sl) f
- Spanish: latitud (es) f
- Swahili: latitudo (sw)
- Swedish: latitud (sv) c, breddgrad (sv) c
- Tagalog: antaslayog
- Ukrainian: широта́ f (šyrotá)
- Vietnamese: vĩ độ (vi)
- Welsh: lledred m
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imaginary line parallel to the equator
freedom from restrictions
angular distance of a heavenly body from the ecliptic
extent to which a light-sensitive material can be over- or underexposed
See also
Anagrams
French
Etymology
From Latin lātitūdō (“breadth, width, latitude”), from lātus (“broad, wide”), from older stlātus.
Pronunciation
Noun
latitude f (plural latitudes)
- expansion, breadth
Ce principe peut avoir une grande latitude.- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
Donner trop de latitude à une proposition, à l’application d’un principe.- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
Laisser beaucoup de latitude aux agents chargés d’une mission.- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
Avoir toute latitude pour: avoir toute liberté pour.- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
- (geography) the distance from a place to the equator measured in degrees on the meridian; parallel viewing
1921, H.G. Wells, translated by Henry-D. Davray and B. Kozakiewicz, La Guerre dans les Airs, Mercure de France, page 174:C’est ici que ça se passe, 30°50’ de latitude nord, 30°50’ de longitude ouest… à une journée de distance pour nous, et ils filent sud-sud-ouest à toute vapeur. À ce train-là nous ne verrons rien, […].- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
1928, Jean-Baptiste Charcot, Dans la mer du Groenland:Le Scoresby Sund est le plus vaste fjord du monde entier. Il est découpé dans la côte Orientale du Groenland entre 70° et 72° de latitude Nord et 22° et 30° de longitude Ouest de Greenwich.- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
1929, Alain Gerbault, “À la poursuite du soleil”, in De New-York à Tahiti, volume 1:[…] le 12 mars, par 20 degrés de latitude Nord, je rencontrai les vents alizés, je pouvais compter dorénavant sur un plus faible et agréable navigation dans les mers tropicales.- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- (by extension) Different areas under a given temperature due to their greater or lesser distance from the equator
- À la différence des animaux, l’homme peut vivre sous les latitudes les plus opposées.
- (astronomy) the angle with a plane parallel to the ecliptic, the straight line that passes through a heavenly body and a particular centre on this plane
Latitude australe ou boréale.- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
Latitude héliocentrique, géocentrique, etc.- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
Latitude de Sirius.- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
- freedom
Antonyms
References
- All or part of this article is from the Dictionary of the French Academy, Eighth Edition, 1932-1935, but it may have been modified since.
Further reading
Old French
Etymology
From Latin lātitūdō (“breadth, width, latitude”).
Noun
latitude oblique singular, f (oblique plural latitudes, nominative singular latitude, nominative plural latitudes)
- breadth
Descendants
Portuguese
Pronunciation
Noun
latitude f (plural latitudes)
- (geography, astronomy) latitude (angular distance north or south from the equator)
- (geography) latitude (imaginary line parallel to the equator)