projection
Pluralprojections
- 1A guess about future numbers, based on the way things are going now.
Like guessing how tall a plant will be next month from how fast it grew this month.
The company's sales projection for next year assumes steady growth.
Economists revised their projections after the new jobs report.
Similarforecast, estimate, prediction, extrapolation, outlook
- 2
- 3Believing that others think and feel as you do, and blaming them for faults that are really yours.
Like thinking everyone in the room is cold just because you feel cold.
His constant projection made him accuse everyone else of lying.
Therapists often see projection when patients blame others for their own anger.
Note
- 4A part of something that sticks out past the rest.
Like a hook that sticks out from a wall.
A small projection on the wall held the shelf in place.
The climbers gripped each rocky projection as they went up.
Similarprotuberance
Oppositerecess, indentation, hollow
- 5The act of throwing or pushing something forward.
Like the moment you let go of a stone and it flies away.
The projection of the ball sent it soaring over the fence.
Stage actors train hard for clear voice projection.
Similarpropulsion, launch, throwing, hurling
Note
- 6A way of drawing the round Earth on a flat map.
Like peeling an orange and pressing the peel flat: it has to stretch or tear.
The Mercator projection makes Greenland look far larger than it really is.
Mapmakers choose a projection that fits the region they are showing.
Note
- 7A flat picture of a solid shape, like its shadow on a wall.
Like the shadow a toy makes on the floor when you shine a light on it.
The projection of the cube onto the paper looked like a flat hexagon.
A shadow is a simple projection of an object.
Similarview, image, representation
Note
- 8The picture that light makes when it shines through a see-through object onto another surface.
Like the colored light a stained-glass window throws on the floor.
The projection of the stained glass painted the floor in color.
Sunlight made a soft projection of the curtain pattern on the wall.
Similarimage
Note
- 9In math, an operation that drops points onto a smaller space, and doing it twice changes nothing more.
Like pressing a leaning pencil flat onto the table: pressing again does nothing more.
The projection sent every point straight down onto the line.
Applying the projection twice gives the same result as applying it once.
Note
- 10
- 11In math, an operation that pulls out one piece of a bigger object.
Like picking just the apples out of a basket of mixed fruit.
The projection picked out the first number from each pair.
Use a projection to keep only the part you need.
Note
- 12In math, an arrow that takes a combined object and gives back one of its parts.
Like opening a gift box and taking out just one of the two toys inside.
The projection maps the pair back to its first object.
Each product comes with a projection to each of its parts.
Note
- 13In grammar, the rule that a word keeps its features as a sentence is built up.
Because of projection, a verb keeps its need for an object as the sentence grows.
The grammar relies on projection to carry word features into the full sentence.
Note
- 14In old alchemy, a supposed way of turning large amounts of common metals into gold.
Like a magic touch that was supposed to change cheap metal into gold.
The alchemist claimed his projection would turn the lead into gold.
[Helmont] says, on another occasion, that an adept, after a few days of acquaintance, presented him with half a grain of the powder of projection, with which he transmuted nine ounces of quicksilver into pure gold.
1888, Arthur Edward Waite, Lives of Alchemystical PhilosophersHere, projection means the supposed process of turning cheap metals into gold.Note
- 15The most important turning point in a process, especially in cooking.
Like the exact moment water starts to boil: the point everything turns on.
The cook watched the pot closely as it neared its projection.
Everything depends on reaching the projection at the right moment.
Note
Practice
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Origin
From Latin "proiectio", from "proicio", made from "project" plus "-ion". It may also come through Middle French "projection".