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tropical |
3 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Month \Month\, n. [OE. month, moneth, AS m[=o]n?, m[=o]na?; akin to m[=o]na moon, and to D. maand month, G. monat, OHG. m[=a]n[=o]d, Icel. m[=a]nu?r, m[=a]na?r, Goth. m[=e]n[=o]?s. [root]272. See {Moon}.] One of the twelve portions into which the year is divided; the twelfth part of a year, corresponding nearly to the length of a synodic revolution of the moon, -- whence the name In popular use a period of four weeks is often called a month. Note: In the common law, a month is a lunar month, or twenty-eight days, unless otherwise expressed. --Blackstone. In the United States the rule of the common law is generally changed, and a month is declared to mean a calendar month. --Cooley's Blackstone. {A month mind}. a A strong or abnormal desire. [Obs.] --Shak. b A celebration made in remembrance of a deceased person a month after death. --Strype. {Calendar months}, the months as adjusted in the common or Gregorian calendar; April, June, September, and November, containing 30 days, and the rest 31, except February, which in common years, has 28, and in leap years 29. {Lunar month}, the period of one revolution of the moon, particularly a synodical revolution; but several kinds are distinguished, as the {synodical month}, or period from one new moon to the next in mean length 29 d. 12 h. 44 m. 2.87 s.; the {nodical month}, or time of revolution from one node to the same again in length 27 d. 5 h. 5 m. 36 s.; the {sidereal}, or time of revolution from a star to the same again equal to 27 d. 7 h. 43 m. 11.5 s.; the {anomalistic}, or time of revolution from perigee to perigee again in length 27 d. 13 h. 18 m. 37.4 s.; and the {tropical}, or time of passing from any point of the ecliptic to the same again equal to 27 d. 7 h. 43 m. 4.7 s. {Solar month}, the time in which the sun passes through one sign of the zodiac, in mean length 30 d. 10 h. 29 m. 4.1 s. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Tropical \Trop"ic*al\, a. [Cf. L. tropicus of turning, Gr ?. See {Tropic}, n.] 1. Of or pertaining to the tropics; characteristic of or incident to the tropics; being within the tropics; as tropical climate; tropical latitudes; tropical heat; tropical diseases. 2. [From {Trope}.] Rhetorically changed from its exact original sense being of the nature of a trope; figurative; metaphorical. --Jer. Taylor. The foundation of all parables is some analogy or similitude between the tropical or allusive part of the parable and the thing intended by it --South. {Tropic month}. See {Lunar month}, under {Month}. {Tropic year}, the solar year; the period occupied by the sun in passing from one tropic or one equinox to the same again having a mean length of 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 46.0 seconds, which is 20 minutes, 23.3 seconds shorter than the sidereal year, on account of the precession of the equinoxes. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: tropical adj 1: relating to or situated in or characteristic of the tropics (the region on either side of the equator); "tropical islands"; "tropical fruit" [syn: {tropic}] 2: (rhetoric) characterized by or of the nature of a trope or tropes; changed from its literal sense 3: of weather or climate; hot and humid as in the tropics; "tropical weather" [syn: {tropic}]
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