sphere

SaySFEER/sfɪɚ/UK/sfɪə(ɹ)/

Pluralspheres

Verbspheres, sphering, sphered

11 meanings of sphere

Practice

1
nouncountable
A round object shaped like a ball.
Like a ball or a marble: round all over.
The children rolled a small sphere of clay between their hands.
She painted each glass sphere a different color.
Similarorb
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2
nounfigurativelycountable
The area of life or work where someone is active or in charge.
Like your own corner of the playground where you make the rules.
Money matters are not really my sphere, so I asked an expert.
Cooking is her sphere, and she runs the kitchen with confidence.
Similarfield, area, sector, orbit
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3
nouncountable
A round surface where every point is the same distance from the middle.
Like the outside skin of a perfectly round ball.
In math class we learned that every point on a sphere is the same distance from its center.
The teacher drew a sphere on the board and marked its center.
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4
nouncountable
The full set of points that are all the same distance from a single fixed point.
Like marking every spot that is exactly one step away from a flag in the middle.
A sphere is just every point that stays the same distance from the center.
The model shows a sphere built from thousands of equally spaced points.
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5
nouncountable
The part of the sky or world ruled by a planet, god, or hero.
Like how each king rules only his own land.
In old stories, each god had a sphere of power over the sea or sky.
The planet Mars was said to rule its own sphere.
Similardomain, realm, province
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6
nouncountable
The place where something or someone naturally and properly belongs.
Like a fish that belongs in water, not on land.
A fish out of water is far from its proper sphere.
Back among his books, the old scholar was in his true sphere.
Similarelement
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7
nounhistoricalcountable
One of the clear hollow balls that people once thought circled the Earth and carried the stars.
Like clear glass balls placed one inside another, each carrying a light.
People once believed each planet rode on its own crystal sphere.
They understood not the motion of the eighth sphear from West to East, and so conceived the longitude of the Stars invariable.
1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia EpidemicaHere, sphear means one of the clear hollow globes once thought to carry the stars.
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8
verbtransitive
To make something round, or to make it complete and perfect.
You can sphere the dough by rolling it between your palms.
Over many years, the river spheres the sharp rocks into smooth balls.
Similarround
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9
verbtransitive
To put something inside a sphere, or among the heavenly spheres.
Like setting a marble inside a clear glass ball.
The poet imagined a god who could sphere the stars in glass.
Ancient writers liked to sphere their heroes among the heavens.
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Less common meanings

10
nounarchaic
The outer edge of the sky, pictured long ago as a hollow ball holding the stars.
Like the inside of a giant dome with stars stuck to it.
The astronomers of old believed the stars were fixed to a turning sphere.
Resistless rolls the illimitable sphere, / And one great circle forms the unmeasured year.
1791, Erasmus Darwin, The Economy of VegetationHere, sphere means the sky, pictured as a huge hollow ball around us.
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11
noundatedcountable
All the things that a statement or idea applies to.
Like a basket that holds all the things one word can name.
The word 'animal' has a wide sphere, covering everything from ants to whales.
In point of fact, so often as we think a subject as partially included within the sphere of a predicate, eo ipso we think it as partially, that is, particularly, excluded therefrom.
a. 1856, William Hamilton, Lectures on Metaphysics and LogicHere, sphere means the whole range of cases a word or statement covers.
Similarscope, range, extension
Note

Practice

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Origin

It came through Old French from Latin, which took it from Ancient Greek 'sphaira', meaning 'ball' or 'globe'. Where the Greek word came from is unknown.