MERIDIAN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Meridian mean? 

• MERIDIAN (noun)
  The noun MERIDIAN has 3 senses:

1. the highest level or degree attainable; the highest stage of development

2. a town in eastern Mississippi

3. an imaginary great circle on the surface of the earth passing through the north and south poles at right angles to the equator

  Familiarity information: MERIDIAN used as a noun is uncommon.

• MERIDIAN (adjective)
  The adjective MERIDIAN has 2 senses:

1. of or happening at noon

2. being at the best stage of development

  Familiarity information: MERIDIAN used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MERIDIAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The highest level or degree attainable; the highest stage of development

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

acme; elevation; height; meridian; peak; pinnacle; summit; superlative; tiptop; top

Context example:

at the top of his profession

Hypernyms ("meridian" is a kind of...):

degree; level; point; stage (a specific identifiable position in a continuum or series or especially in a process)

Derivation:

meridian (being at the best stage of development)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A town in eastern Mississippi

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Instance hypernyms:

town (an urban area with a fixed boundary that is smaller than a city)

Holonyms ("Meridian" is a part of...):

Magnolia State; Miss.; Mississippi; MS (a state in the Deep South on the gulf of Mexico; one of the Confederate States during the American Civil War)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An imaginary great circle on the surface of the earth passing through the north and south poles at right angles to the equator

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

line of longitude; meridian

Context example:

all points on the same meridian have the same longitude

Hypernyms ("meridian" is a kind of...):

great circle (a circular line on the surface of a sphere formed by intersecting it with a plane passing through the center)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "meridian"):

observer's meridian (a meridian that passes through the observer's zenith)

prime meridian (meridian at zero degree longitude from which east and west are reckoned (usually the Greenwich longitude in England))

magnetic meridian (an imaginary line passing through both magnetic poles of the Earth)

Instance hyponyms:

date line; dateline; International Date Line (an imaginary line on the surface of the earth following (approximately) the 180th meridian)

Derivation:

meridional (of or relating to a meridian)

• MERIDIAN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of or happening at noon

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

meridian hour

Pertainym:

noon (the middle of the day)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Being at the best stage of development

Synonyms:

meridian; prime

Context example:

our manhood's prime vigor

Similar:

mature (having reached full natural growth or development)

Derivation:

meridian (the highest level or degree attainable; the highest stage of development)

 Context examples 

The flow of qi is restored by using pressure, needles, suction, or heat at hundreds of specific points along the meridians.

(Chinese meridian theory, NCI Dictionary)

It is based on the belief that qi (the body's vital energy) flows along meridians (channels) in the body and keeps a person’s spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical health in balance.

(Oriental medicine, NCI Dictionary)

Oxo lies near the 0 degree meridian that defines the edge of many Ceres maps, making this small feature easy to overlook.

(New Ceres Images Show Bright Craters, NASA)

In the very meridian of the night's enjoyment, about an hour after tea, a rap was heard at the door.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“In the Speedy,” said Cochrane, “the sailcloth was so thin that, when I made my observation, I always took my meridian through the foretopsail and my horizon through the foresail.”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At midday the sky to the south warmed to rose-colour, and marked where the bulge of the earth intervened between the meridian sun and the northern world.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It is based on the belief that qi (the body's vital energy) flows along 20 meridians (channels) throughout the body and keeps a person's spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical health in balance.

(Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, NCI Dictionary)

In traditional Chinese medicine, meridians are channels that form a network in the body, through which qi (vital energy) flows.

(Chinese meridian theory, NCI Dictionary)

Mr. Rochester, I have just discovered the sun is far declined from its meridian, and Pilot is actually gone home to his dinner.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I feared my hopes were too bright to be realised; and I had enjoyed so much bliss lately that I imagined my fortune had passed its meridian, and must now decline.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)