orthogonal.
Of two objects, at right angles; perpendicular to each other.
Meaning & usage
Of two objects, at right angles; perpendicular to each other.
A chord and the radius that bisects it are orthogonal.
Of a pair of vectors: having a zero inner product; perpendicular.
The normal vector and tangent vector at a given point are orthogonal.
Of a square matrix: such that its transpose is equal to its inverse.
Of a linear transformation: preserving its angles.
Of grid graphs, board games and polyominoes: vertical or horizontal but not diagonal.
Of a pair of elements in an ortholattice: each less than or equal to the orthocomplement of the other.
Statistically independent, with reference to variates.
Of two or more aspects of a problem, able to be treated separately; of a design, exhibiting consistency and composability.
The content of the message should be orthogonal to the means of its delivery.
Of two or more problems or subjects, independent of or irrelevant to each other.
Where this word comes from
From Middle French orthogonal, in turn from Medieval Latin orthogōnālis and Latin orthogōnius (“right-angled”), ultimately from Ancient Greek ὀρθογώνιος (orthogṓnios, “rectangular”). By surface analysis, ortho- + -gon + -al.
An orthogonal line.
All of the orthogonals in this painting display an understanding of linear perspective.
Where this word comes from
From Middle French orthogonal, in turn from Medieval Latin orthogōnālis and Latin orthogōnius (“right-angled”), ultimately from Ancient Greek ὀρθογώνιος (orthogṓnios, “rectangular”). By surface analysis, ortho- + -gon + -al.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.