FromLatinsymmetria, fromAncient Greekσυμμετρία(summetría), fromσύμμετρος(súmmetros,“symmetrical”), fromσύν(sún,“with”) +μέτρον(métron,“measure”). Bysurface analysis,sym- +-metry.
symmetry (countable anduncountable,pluralsymmetries)
- Exactcorrespondence on either side of adividingline,plane,center oraxis.
- Thesatisfyingarrangement of abalanceddistribution of theelements of a whole.
1921,Ben Travers, chapter 1, inA Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.:Doubleday, Page & Company, published1925,→OCLC:She was like a BeardsleySalome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with humansymmetry.
correspondence on either side of a dividing line, plane, center or axis
satisfying arrangement of a balanced distribution of the elements of a whole
- ^In old poetic usage,symmetry is sometimes pronounced/ˈsɪmɪtɹaɪ/ (enPR:sĭʹmĭtrī), as, for example, in thefirst verse ofWilliam Blake’s “The Tyger” inSongs of Experience (1794):
Tyger Tyger, burning bright, / In the forests of the night: / What immortal hand or eye, / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
