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Oval vs Sphere - What's the difference?

oval | sphere |

As nouns the difference between oval and sphere

is that oval is a shape rather like an egg or an ellipse while sphere is a regular three-dimensional object in which every cross-section is a circle; the figure described by the revolution of a circle about its diameter .

As an adjective oval

is having the shape of an oval.

As a proper noun Oval

is a cricket ground in South London.

As a verb sphere is

to place in a sphere, or among the spheres; to ensphere.

oval

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A shape rather like an egg or an ellipse.
  • A sporting arena etc. of this shape.
  • Usage notes

    * Note: an ellipse is a precise mathematical shape, but an oval is not.

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Having the shape of an oval.
  • Of or pertaining to an ovum.
  • oval conceptions

    Derived terms

    * ovaline * ovalish * ovally

    Usage notes

    The adjectives oval, ovate, and ovoid all come from roots meaning "egg-shaped". They are usually denotatively synonymous. A connotation of one end being bigger than the other (which is often true of eggs) may or may not be implied. Of the three, oval is the one mostly likely to connote a symmetrical ellipse.

    sphere

    English

    (wikipedia sphere)

    Alternative forms

    * (archaic) * sphear (archaic)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (mathematics) A regular three-dimensional object in which every cross-section is a circle; the figure described by the revolution of a circle about its diameter .
  • A spherical physical object; a globe or ball.
  • * Milton
  • Of celestial bodies, first the sun, / A mighty sphere , he framed.
  • * 2011 , Piers Sellers, The Guardian , 6 July:
  • So your orientation changes a little bit but it sinks in that the world is a sphere , and you're going around it, sometimes under it, sideways, or over it.
  • * 1635 , John Donne, "His parting form her":
  • Though cold and darkness longer hang somewhere, / Yet Phoebus equally lights all the Sphere .
  • (historical, astronomy, mythology) Any of the concentric hollow transparent globes formerly believed to rotate around the Earth, and which carried the heavenly bodies; there were originally believed to be eight, and later nine and ten; friction between them was thought to cause a harmonious sound (the music of the spheres ).
  • *, vol.1, p.153:
  • It is more simplicitie to teach our children[t]he knowledge of the starres, and the motion of the eighth spheare , before their owne.
  • * 1646 , (Thomas Browne), Pseudodoxia Epidemica , I.6:
  • They understood not the motion of the eighth sphear from West to East, and so conceived the longitude of the Stars invariable.
  • (mythology) An area of activity for a planet; or by extension, an area of influence for a god, hero etc.
  • (figuratively) The region in which something or someone is active; one's province, domain.
  • * 1946 , (Bertrand Russell), History of Western Philosophy , I.20:
  • They thought – originally on grounds derived from religion – that each thing or person had its or his proper sphere , to overstep which is ‘unjust’.
  • (geometry) The set of all points in three-dimensional Euclidean space (or n -dimensional space, in topology) that are a fixed distance from a fixed point .
  • (logic) The extension of a general conception, or the totality of the individuals or species to which it may be applied.
  • Synonyms

    * (object) ball, globe, orb * (region of activity) area, domain, field, orbit, sector * (in geometry) (''topology ) * See celestial sphere * See celestial body

    Derived terms

    * blogosphere * sphere of influence * sphere of interest

    See also

    * ball (in topology ) * Mathworld article on the sphere *

    Verb

    (spher)
  • To place in a sphere, or among the spheres; to ensphere.
  • * Shakespeare
  • The glorious planet Sol / In noble eminence enthroned and sphered / Amidst the other.
  • To make round or spherical; to perfect.
  • (Tennyson)
    (Webster 1913)

    Anagrams

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