slope

English Online Dictionary. What means slope‎? What does slope mean?

English

Etymology

From aslope (adjective, adverb).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /sloʊp/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sləʊp/
• Rhymes: -əʊp

Noun

slope (countable and uncountable, plural slopes)

1. An area of ground that tends evenly upward or downward.

2. The degree to which a surface tends upward or downward.

3. (mathematics, of a line, with respect to a fixed coordinate system) The ratio of the vertical and horizontal distances between two points lying on the line.

4. (mathematics, of a curve at a given point; sometimes proscribed, see Usage notes) The slope of the line tangent to the curve at the given point.

5. The angle a roof surface makes with the horizontal, expressed as a ratio of the units of vertical rise to the units of horizontal length (sometimes referred to as run).

6. (vulgar, offensive, ethnic slur) A person of Chinese or other East Asian descent.

Usage notes

• In mathematical contexts, lines that are vertical (with respect to a given coordinate system) are said to either have infinite slope, or to have their slope undefined.
• While common in pre-university level mathematics and in introductory calculus, the use of slope to refer to the slope of a tangent line of a curve is proscribed in higher mathematics, where application is restricted to lines.

Synonyms

• (area of ground that tends evenly upward or downward): bank, embankment, gradient, hill, incline
• (degree to which a surface tends upward or downward): gradient
• (mathematics): first derivative, gradient
• (offensive: Chinese person): Chinaman, Chink

Translations

Verb

slope (third-person singular simple present slopes, present participle sloping, simple past and past participle sloped)

1. (intransitive) To tend steadily upward or downward.
2. (transitive) To form with a slope; to give an oblique or slanting direction to; to incline or slant.

3. (UK, colloquial, usually followed by a preposition) To try to move surreptitiously.
4. (military) To hold a rifle at a slope with forearm perpendicular to the body in front holding the butt, the rifle resting on the shoulder.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

slope (comparative more slope, superlative most slope)

1. (obsolete) Sloping.

Adverb

slope (comparative more slope, superlative most slope)

1. (obsolete) slopingly

Anagrams

• poles, olpes, S-pole, lopes, eslop, LEPOs, Lopes, spole, Poles

Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

slope

1. (dated or formal) singular past subjunctive of sluipen
2. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of slopen

Anagrams

• sloep, spoel