Meridian

How to spell meridian

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce meridian

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does meridian mean?

1. nounA line of longitude running between the North and South Poles, used to fix positions and time zones on the Earth.
2. nounThe point of highest development, power, or splendour that something reaches.

Meridian in a sentence

• The prime meridian that runs through Greenwich marks zero degrees longitude.

• The empire reached the meridian of its wealth and influence during that century.

• The navigator plotted the ship's course relative to the nearest meridian.

• Her career hit its meridian when she was appointed chief executive.

Where does meridian come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin meridianus, meaning 'of midday' or 'belonging to noon', which was formed from meridies, the Latin word for 'noon' and also 'south'. That noun itself came from an older form medidies, built on medius meaning 'middle' and dies meaning 'day', so the literal idea is the middle of the day. English picked the word up through Old French in the 1300s, at first describing the time around noon. Because the sun reaches its highest point in the sky at midday, astronomers and geographers applied the term to the imaginary circle a heavenly body crosses at that moment, and from there to the lines of longitude running north to south on a map. The buried medius 'middle' is a useful spelling cue, since it explains the central 'i' that adults sometimes drop.

How the word is built

• meridi- (from Latin meridies: midday, noon)
• -an (relating to)