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Glite Dictionary
👵 A female ancestor 📐 A generating line
generatrix

generatrix

9.9
A line that moves to make a surface
  • noun
  • /ˌdʒɛnəˈreɪtrɪks/
  • Specialized
translation icon : generatriz
  • The architect used a curved generatrix to design an elegant surface for the new building.

Examples

  • To create the complex shape, the designer specified the generatrix that would define its edges.

  • In geometry, a generatrix is a straight line that helps form a cylinder when moved along a defined path.

  • He had read of the same experiments on Earth three hundred years ago and of the fantastic accident that had led Roman-Forteski and Gladheim to enclose the generatrix in a dodecahedron of quartz.

    Fiction book (1992)

Synonyms

element
vsgeneratrix
  • Specialized
4 7.9

A straight line that moves to make the curved surface of a cylinder or cone

includes curves and applies to many surfaces not only cylinders or cones

Surface Forms

generatrix singular
generatrices plural

Morphology

generatrix = generator (semi-transparent) = generate + trix

The technical geometric sense 'line that generates a surface' follows the logical idea of 'that which generates', but the Latin agentive suffix '-trix' is less familiar, making the relation partially transparent.

Etymology

Generatrix is used in geometry and comes from the same root as generate, which means 'to make'. A generatrix is the line that 'makes' a surface by moving, so the name shows its job of producing the shape.