synclinal

From syn- +‎ -clinal.

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• Rhymes: -aɪnəl

synclinal (comparative more synclinal, superlative most synclinal)

1. (chemistry) Describing a torsion angle between 30° and 90°
2. Inclined downward from opposite directions, so as to meet in a common point or line.
   • 1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest , Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 75:

     The doctor's eyebrows had gone synclinal from puzzlement without his awareness.

3. (geology) Formed by strata dipping toward a common line or plane.

   a synclinal trough or valley; a synclinal fold

• (antonym(s) of “geology”): anticlinal

synclinal (plural synclinals)

1. (geology) A synclinal fold.
   • 1865, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, page 195:

     But being chiefly sections of younger rocks than ours, the Austrian diagrams exhibit a more disturbed surface, so far as regards faults and slips, snapped anticlinals, upshoved synclinals, lapped folds,

synclinal (feminine synclinale, masculine plural synclinaux, feminine plural synclinales)

1. synclinal

• “synclinal”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.