symmetry
/ˈsɪmɪtri
/noun (plural symmetries) [mass noun]
1The quality of being made up of exactly similar parts facing each other or around an axis: this series has a line of symmetry through its centre a crystal structure with hexagonal symmetry...
- In principle, it is possible that the hexagonal symmetry of the inner structure is a result of superposition of stacks of membranes oriented at different angles.
- When an egg is spun on its side, its axis of symmetry - a line stretching between the eggs' two tips - starts off by being horizontal.
- Certain corals, for example, build structures with hexagonal symmetry, but not in seafloor sediment.
Synonyms
regularity, evenness, uniformity, equilibrium, consistency, congruity, conformity, agreement, correspondence, orderliness, equality
1.1Correct or pleasing proportion of the parts of a thing: the overall symmetry makes the poem pleasant to the ear...
- Sometimes he identifies the beautiful with the typical in nature, but in De re aedificatoria he constructs a theory of beauty around mathematical symmetry and proportion of parts.
- The judges were more interested in size than overall balance, proportion and symmetry.
- This claim uncovers why we find certain formal properties such as symmetry and regularity aesthetically pleasing.
Synonyms
balance, proportions, regularity, evenness of form, harmony, harmoniousness, consonance, concord, coordination
1.2Similarity or exact correspondence between different things: the political symmetry between the two debates [count noun]: history sometimes exhibits weird symmetries between events...
- There was too great a link and matching symmetry between the different movements, each one anchored by a duet.
- The key point is its re-establishment of symmetry between social relations.
- There is a significant lack of symmetry between the two acts of the play, separated by a fifteen minute interval, which I found a distraction.
1.3 [count noun] Physics & Mathematics A law or operation where a physical property or process has an equivalence in two or more directions.The usual group of spacetime symmetries in relativistic quantum field theory is called the Poincaré group....
- The mathematical beauty and experimental success of this idea have led physicists to extend it to higher energies and possible higher symmetries, as will be described below.
- String theory and/or supersymmetry, for example, involve higher dimensions of space that introduce new degrees of freedom and possible violations of space-time symmetries such as Lorentz symmetry.
Derivatives
symmetrize
- He is somebody who saw himself in a way as purifying, simplifying, symmetrizing - bringing out elements of a less baroque physics.
- The huge machines plowed away the ridge and symmetrized all the fields as systematically as possible.
- To check whether the results were affected by this definition, we also symmetrized each matrix using the rule that there was a link between two people only if each member of the pair nominated the other.
Origin
Mid 16th century (denoting proportion): from French symétrie or Latin symmetria, from Greek, from sun- 'with' + metron 'measure'.