• sphære(archaic)
• sphear(archaic)
• spheare(obsolete)

FromMiddle Englishspere, fromOld Frenchsphere, fromLate Latinsphēra, earlierLatinsphaera(“ball, globe, celestial sphere”), fromAncient Greekσφαῖρα(sphaîra,“ball, globe”), of unknown origin. Not related to superficially similarPersianسپهر(sepehr,“sky”)(Canthis⁽⁺⁾ etymology besourced?).

• (UK)IPA^(key):/sfɪə(ɹ)/
• (US)enPR:sfîr,IPA^(key):/sfɪɚ/

• Audio(US):

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• Rhymes:-ɪə(ɹ)

sphere (pluralspheres)

1. (mathematics) A surface in three dimensions consisting of all points equidistant from acenter.[from 14th c.].

   Synonym:(topology)2-sphere

2. An object which appears to be bounded by a sphere; around object, aball.[from 14th c.]

   Synonym:orb

   • 1667,John Milton, “Book VII”, inParadise Lost. […], London:[…] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […];[a]nd by Robert Boulter […];[a]nd Matthias Walker, […],→OCLC; republished asParadise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […],1873,→OCLC:

     Of celestial bodies, first the sun, / A mightysphere, he framed.

   • 2011 July 6, Piers Sellers,The Guardian:

     So your orientation changes a little bit but it sinks in that the world is asphere, and you're going around it, sometimes under it, sideways, or over it.

3. (astronomy, nowrare) Thecelestial sphere: the edge of the heavens, imagined as a hollowglobe within which celestial bodies appear to be embedded.[from 14th c.]
   • 1635, John Donne,His parting form her:

     Though cold and darkness longer hang somewhere, / YetPhoebus equally lights all theSphere.

   • 1791,Erasmus Darwin,The Economy of Vegetation, J. Johnson, page190:

     Resistless rolls the illimitablesphere, / And one great circle forms the unmeasured year.

4. (historical,astronomy,mythology) Any of the concentric hollow transparent globes formerly believed to rotate around theEarth, and which carried theheavenly bodies; there were originally believed to be eight, and later nine and ten; friction between them was thought to cause a harmonious sound (themusic of the spheres).[from 14th c.]
   • c.1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe],Tamburlaine the Great.[…] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London:[…][R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published1592,→OCLC; reprinted asTamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press,1973,→ISBN,Act I, scene ii:

     ſooner ſhall the Sun fall from hisSpheare,
     ThanTamburlaine be ſlaine or ouercome.

   • 1603,Michel de Montaigne, translated byJohn Florio,The Essayes […], book I, London:[…]Val[entine] Simmes forEdward Blount […],→OCLC,page153:

     It is more simplicitie to teach our children[…][t]he knowledge of the starres, and the motion of the eighthspheare, before their owne.

   • 1646,Thomas Browne,Pseudodoxia Epidemica,I.6:

     They understood not the motion of the eighthsphear from West to East, and so conceived the longitude of the Stars invariable.

5. (mythology) An area of activity for a planet; or by extension, an area of influence for agod,hero etc.[from 14th c.]
6. (figuratively) The region in which something or someone is active; one'sprovince,domain.[from 17th c.]

   Synonyms:area,field,orbit,sector

   sphere of influence

   • 1834,L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVIII, inFrancesca Carrara. […], volume II, London:Richard Bentley, […], (successor toHenry Colburn),→OCLC,page203:

     ...while his sweet and gentle niece would be a charming companion for Francesca; and he thought, with a glow of affection long unfelt, that Lucy Aylmer must inevitably make a friend whose future kindness might add much to her happiness. Both were at present placed out of theirsphere: but the one would in all probability have it greatly in her power to cherish and aid the other.

   • 1946,Bertrand Russell,History of Western Philosophy,I.20:

     They thought – originally on grounds derived from religion – that each thing or person had its or his propersphere, to overstep which is ‘unjust’.

7. The natural, normal, or proper place (of something).

   Synonym:element

   in one'ssphere

8. (geometry) The set of all points inthree-dimensionalEuclidean space (orn-dimensional space, in topology) that are a fixed distance from a fixed point[from 20th c.].
9. (logic,dated) The domain ofreference of aproposition,subject, orpredicate, or the totality of the particular subjects to which itapplies.
   • a.1856,William Hamilton, “Appendix III: Quantification of Predicate,—Immediate Inference,—Conversion,—Opposition”, inLectures on Metaphysics and Logic, volume 2, published1860,page526:

     In point of fact, so often as we think a subject as partially included within thesphere of a predicate,eo ipso we think it as partially, that is, particularly, excluded therefrom.

   • 1896, James Welton,A Manual of Logic, 2nd edition, volume 1,page213:

     All categorical propositions necessarily imply the existence of their subjects in the appropriatesphere; in affirmative propositions this involves the existence of the predicate in the samesphere; but in negative propositions the predicate does not necessarily exist in that particularsphere, though it does in somesphere.

   • 1900 [1781],Immanuel Kant, translated byJ. M. D. Meiklejohn,Critique of Pure Reason,page58:

     Finally, the disjunctive judgment contains a relation of two or more propositions to each other—a relation not of consequence, but of logical opposition, in so far as thesphere of the one proposition excludes that of the other.

• atmosphere
• hemisphere
• ionosphere
• n-sphere
• planisphere
• spherical
• spheroid
• stratosphere
• troposphere

sphere (third-person singular simple presentspheres,present participlesphering,simple past and past participlesphered)

1. (transitive) To place in a sphere, or among the spheres; toensphere.^[1]
   • c.1602,William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

     The glorious planet Sol / In noble eminence enthroned andsphered / Amidst the other.

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson],In Memoriam, London:Edward Moxon, […],→OCLC, Canto IX:

     Sphere all your lights around, above;
     ⁠Sleep, gentle heavens, before the prow;
     ⁠Sleep, gentle winds, as he sleeps now,
     My friend, the brother of my love.

2. (transitive) To makeround orspherical; toperfect.^[2]
   • 1847,Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page number, or |part=Prologue, I to VII, or conclusion)”, inThe Princess: A Medley, London:Edward Moxon, […],→OCLC:

     sphered Whole

• ball (in topology)
• Mathworld article on the sphere
• PlanetMath article on the sphere

• “sphere”, inOneLook Dictionary Search.

• Hesper,herpes,pesher,pheers

• sphaere
• spere

sphere f (pluralspheres)

1. sphere(shape)

• French:sphère

• espere
• esphere
• spere

sphereoblique singular, f (oblique pluralspheres,nominative singularsphere,nominative pluralspheres)

1. sphere(shape)

• English:sphere
• French:sphère

• Godefroy, Frédéric,Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes duIX^e auXV^e siècle (1881) (sphere, supplement)