longitude

[ lon-ji-tood, -tyood ]

noun

1. Geography. angular distance east or west on the earth's surface, measured by the angle contained between the meridian of a particular place and some prime meridian, as that of Greenwich, England, and expressed either in degrees or by some corresponding difference in time.
2. Astronomy.
   1. celestial longitude.
   2. galactic longitude.

longitude

/ ˈlɒndʒɪˌtjuːd; ˈlɒŋɡ- /

noun

1. distance in degrees east or west of the prime meridian at 0° measured by the angle between the plane of the prime meridian and that of the meridian through the point in question, or by the corresponding time difference See latitude
2. astronomy short for celestial longitude

longitude

/ lŏn′jĭ-to̅o̅d′ /

1. A measure of relative position east or west on the Earth's surface, given in degrees from a certain meridian, usually the prime meridian at Greenwich, England, which has a longitude of 0°. The distance of a degree of longitude is about 69 statute miles or 60 nautical miles (111 km) at the equator, decreasing to zero at the poles. Longitude and latitude are the coordinates used to identify any point on the Earth's surface.
2. Compare latitude
3. Celestial longitude.

longitude

1. A measurement, in degrees , of a place's distance east or west of the prime meridian , which runs through Greenwich , England . ( Compare latitude .)

Word History and Origins

Origin of longitude¹

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin longitūdō length. See longi-, -tude

Word History and Origins

Origin of longitude¹

C14: from Latin longitūdō length, from longus long ¹

Example Sentences

At 105 degrees West longitude, an active satellite might see a piece of junk come within 50km of its position up to four times a day.

From BBC

Using this data, researchers applied the kriging method, a well-known statistical technique, to make predictions of soil-bearing layer thickness and depth based on geographic coordinates such as latitude and longitude.

From Science Daily

For this method, they included geographical data such as latitude, longitude, and elevation along with the geotechnical data to improve the predictive capabilities of the model.

From Science Daily

So he bought a fancy Norwegian submersible for $9 million, learned how it worked, set aside another $2 million for the expedition and said goodbye to his wife and two children before taking off for the South Pacific, armed with the idea that Noonan hadn’t calculated a critical variable in longitude when they crossed the International Date Line on their way to Howland Island.

From Los Angeles Times

It also includes a timestamp, latitude, longitude, altitude, course over ground and the number of communicating satellites.

From Science Daily

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