different between sphere vs pitch

English

Alternative forms

• sphære (archaic)
• sphear (archaic)
• spheare (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English spere, from Old French sphere, from Late Latin sph?ra, earlier Latin sphaera (“ball, globe, celestial sphere”), from Ancient Greek ?????? (sphaîra, “ball, globe”), of unknown origin. Not related to superficially similar Persian ????? (sepehr, “sky”) (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sf??/
• (US) enPR: sfîr, IPA^(key): /sf??/
• Rhymes: -??(r)

Noun

sphere (plural spheres)

1. (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 [from 14th c.].
2. A spherical physical object; a globe or ball. [from 14th c.]
   • 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.

3. (astronomy, now rare) The apparent outer limit of space; the edge of the heavens, imagined as a hollow globe within which celestial bodies appear to be embedded. [from 14th c.]
   • 1635, John Donne, "His parting form her":

     Though cold and darkness longer hang somewhere, / Yet Phoebus equally lights all the Sphere.

4. (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). [from 14th c.]
   • , 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.

5. (mythology) An area of activity for a planet; or by extension, an area of influence for a god, hero etc. [from 14th c.]
6. (figuratively) The region in which something or someone is active; one's province, domain. [from 17th c.]
   • 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’.

7. (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 [from 20th c.].
8. (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): 3-sphere (geometry), 2-sphere (topology)
• (astronomy: apparent surface of the heavens): See celestial sphere
• (astronomy: anything visible on the apparent surface of the heavens): See celestial body

Derived terms

• blogosphere
• ensphere
• sphere of influence
• sphere of interest

Related terms

• atmosphere
• hemisphere
• ionosphere
• planisphere
• spherical
• spheroid
• stratosphere
• troposphere

Translations

Verb

sphere (third-person singular simple present spheres, present participle sphering, simple past and past participle sphered)

1. (transitive) To place in a sphere, or among the spheres; to ensphere.
2. (transitive) To make round or spherical; to perfect.

See also

• ball (in topology)
• Mathworld article on the sphere
• PlanetMath article on the sphere

Anagrams

• Hesper, herpes, pesher, pheers

Middle French

Alternative forms

• sphaere
• spere

Noun

sphere f (plural spheres)

1. sphere (shape)

Descendants

• French: sphère

Old French

Alternative forms

• espere
• esphere
• spere

Noun

sphere f (oblique plural spheres, nominative singular sphere, nominative plural spheres)

1. sphere (shape)

Descendants

• English: sphere
• French: sphère

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (sphere, supplement)

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?t?/
• Rhymes: -?t?

Etymology 1

From Middle English picche, piche, pich, from Old English pi?, from Latin pix. Cognate with Dutch pek, German Pech, and Spanish pegar (“to stick, glue”).

Noun

pitch (countable and uncountable, plural pitches)

1. A sticky, gummy substance secreted by trees; sap.

2. A dark, extremely viscous material remaining in still after distilling crude oil and tar.

3. (geology) Pitchstone.

Derived terms

• pitch-black
• pitchblende
• pitch-dark
• pitch darkness
• pitch-tar

Translations

Descendants

• ? Galician: piche
• ? Portuguese: piche

See also

• piceous

Verb

pitch (third-person singular simple present pitches, present participle pitching, simple past and past participle pitched)

1. To cover or smear with pitch.

   • “Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.”

2. To darken; to blacken; to obscure.
   • 1704 (published), year written unknown, John Dryden, On the Death of Amyntas

     Soon he found / The welkin pitch'd with sullen clouds.

Etymology 2

From Middle English picchen, pycchen (“to thrust in, fasten, settle”), an assibilated variant of Middle English picken, pikken (“to pick, pierce”). More at pick.

Noun

pitch (plural pitches)

1. A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand.

3. (baseball) The act of pitching a baseball.

4. (sports, Britain, Australia, New Zealand) The field on which cricket, soccer, rugby or field hockey is played. (In cricket, the pitch is in the centre of the field; see cricket pitch.) Not used in America, where "field" is the preferred word.

5. An effort to sell or promote something.

6. The distance between evenly spaced objects, e.g. the teeth of a saw or gear, the turns of a screw thread, the centres of holes, or letters in a monospace font.

   A helical scan with a pitch of zero is equivalent to constant z-axis scanning.

7. The angle at which an object sits.

8. A level or degree, or (by extension), a peak or highest degree.
   • September 28, 1710, Joseph Addison, Whig-Examiner No. 2

     He lived at a time when learning was at its highest pitch.

   • 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral, Oxford University Press (1973), section 11:

     But, except the mind be disordered by disease or madness, they never can arrive at such a pitch of vivacity

   • 2014, James Booth, Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love (page 190)

     In this poem his 'vernacular' bluster and garish misrhymes build to a pitch of rowdy anarchy […]

9. The rotation angle about the transverse axis.
   1. (nautical, aviation) The degree to which a vehicle, especially a ship or aircraft, rotates on such an axis, tilting its bow or nose up or down. Compare with roll, yaw, and heave.

   2. (aviation) A measure of the angle of attack of a propeller.

10. An area in a market (or similar) allocated to a particular trader.
11. (by extension) The place where a busker performs, a prostitute solicits clients, or an illegal gambling game etc. is set up before the public.
    • 1975, Tom A. Cullen, The Prostitutes' Padre (page 94)

      Another reason is that the prostitute who makes her pitch at Marble Arch stands a chance of being picked up by an out-of-town business man stopping at one of the hotels in the vicinity, and of being treated to a steak dinner […]

12. An area on a campsite intended for occupation by a single tent, caravan or similar.
13. A point or peak; the extreme point of elevation or depression.
14. Prominence; importance.
15. (climbing) A section of a climb or rock face; specifically, the climbing distance between belays or stances.
    • 1967, Anthony Greenbank, Instructions in Mountaineering (page 84)

      You lead "through" instead — your companion leads a pitch, then you join him. But instead of swapping over at the ice axe belay, you carry on in the lead, cutting or kicking steps until you are about twenty feet above.

16. (caving) A vertical cave passage, only negotiable by using rope or ladders.

17. (now Britain, regional) A person's or animal's height.
18. (cricket) That point of the ground on which the ball pitches or lights when bowled.
19. A descent; a fall; a thrusting down.
20. The point where a declivity begins; hence, the declivity itself; a descending slope; the degree or rate of descent or slope; slant.

21. (mining) The limit of ground set to a miner who receives a share of the ore taken out.

Hyponyms

• football pitch

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

pitch (third-person singular simple present pitches, present participle pitching, simple past and past participle pitched or (obsolete) pight)

2. (transitive) To throw.

4. (transitive or intransitive, baseball) To throw (the ball) toward a batter at home plate.

5. (intransitive, baseball) To play baseball in the position of pitcher.

6. (transitive) To throw away; discard.

7. (transitive) To promote, advertise, or attempt to sell.

8. (transitive) To deliver in a certain tone or style, or with a certain audience in mind.

9. (transitive) To assemble or erect (a tent).

10. (intransitive) To fix or place a tent or temporary habitation; to encamp.

    • Laban with his brethren pitched in the Mount of Gilead.

11. (transitive, intransitive, aviation or nautical) To move so that the front of an aircraft or boat goes alternatively up and down.

12. (transitive, golf) To play a short, high, lofty shot that lands with backspin.

13. (intransitive, cricket) To bounce on the playing surface.

14. (intransitive, Bristol, of snow) To settle and build up, without melting.
15. (intransitive, archaic) To alight; to settle; to come to rest from flight.

    • the tree whereon they [the bees] pitch

16. (with on or upon) To fix one's choice.
    • a. 1694, John Tillotson, The Precepts of Christianity not grievous

      Pitch upon the best course of life, and custom will render it the more easy.
17. (intransitive) To plunge or fall; especially, to fall forward; to decline or slope.

18. (transitive, of an embankment, roadway) To set, face, or pave with rubble or undressed stones.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

19. (transitive, of a price, value) To set or fix.
20. (transitive, card games, slang, of a card) To discard for some gain.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

Unknown. Perhaps related to the above sense of level or degree, or influenced by it.

Noun

pitch (plural pitches)

1. (music, phonetics) The perceived frequency of a sound or note.

   The pitch of middle "C" is familiar to many musicians.

2. (music) In an a cappella group, the singer responsible for singing a note for the other members to tune themselves by.

   Bob, our pitch, let out a clear middle "C" and our conductor gave the signal to start.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

pitch (third-person singular simple present pitches, present participle pitching, simple past and past participle pitched)

1. (intransitive) To produce a note of a given pitch.

   • […] now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music and the opera of voices pitches a key higher.

2. (transitive) To fix or set the tone of.
   • 1955, Rex Stout, "Die Like a Dog", in Three Witnesses, October 1994 Bantam edition, ?ISBN, pages 196–197:

     His "hello" was enough to recognize his voice by. I pitched mine low so he wouldn't know it.

Translations

References

• pitch in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• pitch on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Pronunciation

Noun

pitch m (plural pitchs)

1. pitch (sales patter, inclination)

Italian

Noun

pitch m (plural pitch)

1. (cricket) cricket pitch