Gravitational

How to spell gravitational

13 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce gravitational

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does gravitational mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to gravity or the force of attraction that pulls masses toward one another.

Gravitational in a sentence

• The spacecraft used the planet's gravitational pull to change course.

• Engineers measured the gravitational force acting on the bridge supports.

Where does gravitational come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin adjective gravis, which simply meant 'heavy' or 'weighty'. From it came the noun gravitas, describing both literal heaviness and the figurative weightiness of a serious, dignified person. The scientific term gravitation was coined in the seventeenth century, when natural philosophers needed a name for the universal pull that draws masses toward one another, and Isaac Newton's work made the concept central to physics. The adjective gravitational was then formed by adding the ending -al, giving a word meaning 'relating to gravity or to the force of attraction between masses'. The same gravis root still lives in everyday words such as 'grave', 'gravity', and 'aggravate', and remembering that double link to weight can help fix the single t and the -ational ending in the mind.

How the word is built

• gravit- (from Latin gravis: heavy)
• -ation (state/process)
• -al (adjective suffix)