rectilinear

adjective rec·ti·lin·e·ar \ ˌrek-tə-ˈli-nē-ər \

|Updated on: 23 Jul 2018

Examples: rectilinear in a Sentence

Definition of rectilinear

1 : moving in or forming a straight line

rectilinear motion

2 : characterized by straight lines

the rectilinear skyline of a modern city

3 : perpendicular 3

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rectilinearity

play \ˌrek-tə-ˌli-nē-ˈer-ə-tē, -ˈa-rə-tē\ noun

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rectilinearly

adverb

See rectilinear defined for English-language learners

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Examples of rectilinear in a Sentence

the rectilinear skyline of a modern city

Recent Examples of rectilinear from the Web

An apple-green glass guardrail on the balcony and three glass cubes used as outdoor lighting punctuate the rectilinear parameters with color.

— nancy keates, WSJ, "A Shoe Executive’s Long-Distance Run to His Oregon Abode," 11 July 2018
Sarah Crowner, known over the last decade for stitching together cutout shapes of plain or painted canvas to form rectilinear abstract paintings, is sticking to first principles.

— roberta smith, martha schwendener and will heinrich, New York Times, "What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week," 15 Mar. 2018
From the satellite view, urban spaces are also assumed to exhibit geometric spatial patterns, such as straight roads and contiguous, rectilinear buildings.

— annette m. kim, The Atlantic, "Satellite Images Can Harm the Poorest Citizens," 5 June 2018
Neither of those versions made it to reality: all that’s left of Childs’ attempts at flair is a rectilinear base striated in limestone and dimpled on each facade.

— justin davidson, Daily Intelligencer, "Superhuman City," 18 Apr. 2018
Seemingly hauled up en masse, the forms are wired together and slapped onto a rectilinear steel support, like writhing refugees from a maritime disaster.

— julia couzens, sacbee, "A witty and deep showcase of Jewish artists' contributions to California art history | The Sacramento Bee," 6 Apr. 2018
Their rational, rectilinear creations, made of silver or pricey oak, won a following among imperial Vienna’s bourgeoisie, but perpetual cost overruns and the coming of war pushed the Wiener Werkstätte into decline.

— New York Times, "Art and Museums in NYC This Week," 14 Dec. 2017
As New York grew, the city stuck to this strictly rectilinear vision, and as a result the streets of New York north of Houston Street are still an orderly grid, entirely unlike the charming rabbit warrens of London and Paris.

— ken jennings, Condé Nast Traveler, "If the World Was Mapped Using the Manhattan Grid System," 30 Oct. 2017
The population began to creep out into nearby middle-class neighborhoods like Bayside, where the schools were better and the relatively spacious houses sat on quiet streets with tidy, uniformly rectilinear front lawns.

— jay caspian kang, New York Times, "What a Fraternity Hazing Death Revealed About the Painful Search for an Asian-American Identity," 9 Aug. 2017

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