Hemisphere

How to spell hemisphere

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce hemisphere

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hemisphere mean?

1. nounA half of the Earth or of a sphere, especially as divided by the equator or a meridian.
2. nounEither of the two halves of the brain, the left and the right.

Hemisphere in a sentence

• Australia lies in the southern hemisphere, so its seasons are reversed.

• The scan showed reduced activity in the left hemisphere of the brain.

• Most of the world's population lives in the northern hemisphere.

• Language processing is concentrated in one hemisphere for most people.

Where does hemisphere come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word comes from the Greek hemisphairion, a compound of hemi, meaning 'half', and sphaira, meaning 'ball' or 'globe'. Greek thinkers used it for half of a celestial sphere, and Latin took it over as hemisphaerium with the same astronomical sense. English borrowed the term in the late 1300s, at first chiefly for the half of the heavens visible above the horizon, then extending it to half of the globe once mapmakers split the Earth into Northern and Southern, Eastern and Western halves. The same hemi root for 'half' surfaces in 'hemicycle' and 'hemiplegia', while sphaira lies behind 'sphere', 'spheroid' and 'atmosphere'. The spelling trap is the silent middle: the 's' of 'sphere' sits next to the 'h', so the cluster 'sph' is easy to scramble, and the unstressed first syllable can tempt writers toward 'hemi-' versus 'hema-'.

How the word is built

• hemi- (half)
• sphere (from Greek sphaira: ball, globe)