pole

pole

¹

1. a long slender usually round piece of wood, metal, or other material

2. the piece of timber on each side of which a pair of carriage horses are hitched

3. another name for rod

4. Horse racing chiefly US and Canadian

a. the inside lane of a racecourse

b. (as modifier): the pole position

c. one of a number of markers placed at intervals of one sixteenth of a mile along the side of a racecourse

5. Nautical

a. any light spar

b. the part of a mast between the head and the attachment of the uppermost shrouds

6. under bare poles Nautical (of a sailing vessel) with no sails set

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pole

²

1. either of the two antipodal points where the earth's axis of rotation meets the earth's surface

2. Astronomy short for celestial pole

3. Physics

a. either of the two regions at the extremities of a magnet to which the lines of force converge or from which they diverge

b. either of two points or regions in a piece of material, system, etc., at which there are opposite electric charges, as at the two terminals of a battery

4. Maths an isolated singularity of an analytical function

5. Biology

a. either end of the axis of a cell, spore, ovum, or similar body

b. either end of the spindle formed during the metaphase of mitosis and meiosis

6. Physiol the point on a neuron from which the axon or dendrites project from the cell body

7. Geometry the origin in a system of polar or spherical coordinates

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Pole

¹

Reginald. 1500--58, English cardinal; last Roman Catholic archbishop of Canterbury (1556--58)

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Pole

A slender log used as a structural member, with or without the bark removed.

Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture Copyright © 2012, 2002, 1998 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

What does it mean when you dream about a pole?

A pole can be a symbol of female sexuality. There are a number of idiomatic uses of the term to which a dream might be alluding, as in the expression “poles apart” or “low on the totem pole.” The word is also sometimes used to refer to someone who is extremely thin.

The Dream Encyclopedia, Second Edition © 2009 Visible Ink Press®. All rights reserved.

pole

[pōl]

(crystallography)

A direction perpendicular to one of the faces of a crystal.

One of the points at which normals to crystal faces or planes intersect a reference sphere at whose center the crystal is located.

(electricity)

One of the electrodes in an electric cell.

An output terminal on a switch; a double-pole switch has two output terminals.

(mathematics)

An isolated singular point z₀ of a complex function whose Laurent series expansion about z₀ will include finitely many terms of form a_n (z-z₀)^-n .

For a great circle on a sphere, the pole of the circle is a point of intersection of the sphere and a line that passes through the center of the sphere and is perpendicular to the plane of the circle.

For a conic section, the pole of a line is the intersection of the tangents to the conic at the points of intersection of the conic with the line.

For a quadric surface, the pole of a plane is the vertex of the cone which is tangent to the surface along the curve where the plane intersects the surface.

The origin of a system of polar coordinates on a plane.

The origin of a system of geodesic polar coordinates on a surface.

(mechanics)

A point at which an axis of rotation or of symmetry passes through the surface of a body.

perch

(optics)

The geometric center of a convex or concave mirror.

optical center

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

pole

A long, slender, tapering piece of wood; a pale, prop, stake, or stay.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.