parabola

noun pa·rab·o·la \ pə-ˈra-bə-lə \

|Updated on: 30 May 2018

Definition of parabola

1 : a plane curve generated by a point moving so that its distance from a fixed point is equal to its distance from a fixed line : the intersection of a right circular cone with a plane parallel to an element of the cone

2 : something bowl-shaped (such as an antenna or microphone reflector)

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Recent Examples of parabola from the Web

Mexico 68 oscillated, in its effects, between the modern and the folkloric, parabolas and papier-mache, pictograms and totems.

— alexandra lange, Curbed, "Lessons from LA’s 1984 Summer Olympics," 17 May 2018
The effect is something like watching little kids unsuccessfully trying to work two jump-ropes at once, resulting in wriggly, out-of-sync parabolas.

— stephanie zacharek, Time, "Cannes Review: Jean-Luc Godard's The Image Book Confounds and Dazzles," 14 May 2018
Johnson held her follow through and backpedaled as the ball traveled its parabola path to the rim.

— ben baskin, SI.com, "Arike Ogunbowale Etches Her Name Into March Lore as Notre Dame Shocks UConn in Final Four," 31 Mar. 2018
To brush up on algebra, a parabola is a particular type of arc that is defined by the exact curvature of its sides.

— maya wei-haas, Smithsonian, "Your Burning Questions About the Olympic Torch, Answered," 9 Feb. 2018
The performances, particularly from Gyllenhaal and Tatiana Maslany (as Bauman’s girlfriend, Erin Hurley), are certainly Oscar-worthy, and the story arc largely follows the inspirational parabola of Hollywood screenwriting.

— david sims, The Atlantic, "Stronger Is a Profound, Oscar-Worthy Gem," 22 Sep. 2017
Engineers say the Inuit, through trial and error, devised a design based on a parabola, not a semicircle, eliminating the forces that would make a true hemisphere bulge and collapse.

— craig s. smith, The Seattle Times, "Making igloos: a vanishing art in the Arctic," 7 July 2017
Cut the resulting parabola out with a jigsaw to form the mouth of your bootjack.

— teddy boxberger, Popular Mechanics, "How to Make a Bootjack," 2 Aug. 2017
Mike Moustakas flipped his bat to the ground and put his head down as another baseball soared through the sky, creating a parabola in the humid night air.

— rustin dodd, kansascity, "Moustakas goes deep twice as Royals power past White Sox 7-2," 22 July 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'parabola.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.