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Glite Dictionary
Greenwich Meridian

Greenwich Meridian

4.9
A line of longitude at zero degrees that passes through Greenwich, London
  • noun
  • /ˈɡrɛnɪtʃ məˈrɪdiən/
translation icon : meridiano de Greenwich
  • Navigators use the Greenwich Meridian as a reference point for determining their longitudinal position.

Examples

  • After local midnight at your Greenwich meridian on the seventh day, we will no longer reply to you.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • The Greenwich Meridian is used as the reference line for all the world's time zones.

  • Since the Greenwich Meridian passes through London, it is often associated with British history.

Synonyms

prime meridian
vsGreenwich Meridian
1 4.4

An imaginary line at zero degrees that runs through Greenwich, England and is used to measure east and west

is the historical name for that identical internationally adopted zero line

Surface Forms

Greenwich Meridian singular

Morphology

Greenwich + meridian

The phrase is directly compositional: a place name ('Greenwich') combined with 'meridian' (a line of longitude) yields ‘the meridian running through Greenwich’. This naming pattern is transparent and common cross-linguistically (e.g. 'meridiano de Greenwich'), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the intended meaning.

Etymology

Greenwich Meridian comes from a real line on the ground at Greenwich in London. In 1884 people agreed to use that line as the world's 'zero' for measuring east and west, so it became the 'starting point' for maps and time.