Meaning & use
quadrant
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Meanings
nouncountablemathematics
One of the four equal areas a plane is divided into by a horizontal and a vertical axis.
Grammar: A count noun in math: the first quadrant, the upper-right quadrant.
Patterns
- in the first quadrant
The point (2, 3) lies in the first quadrant of the graph.
Students plotted the points in the second quadrant.
Each quadrant of the grid was shaded a different color.
nouncountable
Any of four roughly equal parts of something, such as a city, the sky or the body.
Grammar: Used for any four-way division: the northeast quadrant of the city.
Patterns
- the quadrant of something
The pain was in the upper-right quadrant of her abdomen.
The fire was confined to the northeast quadrant of the city.
The astronomer scanned one quadrant of the sky at a time.
nouncountabletechnicalold-fashioned
An old instrument shaped like a quarter circle, used to measure the height of stars or the sun.
Grammar: Historical term for a navigation or astronomy tool.
Patterns
- measure with a quadrant
Sailors once used a quadrant to find their latitude.
The museum displays a brass quadrant from the 1600s.
He measured the angle of the star with a quadrant.
Word forms
| plural | quadrants |
|---|
Common combinations
- first quadrant
- All coordinates in the first quadrant are positive.
- upper-right quadrant
- The data points cluster in the upper-right quadrant.
- quadrant of the circle
- A quadrant of the circle was shaded.
- abdominal quadrant
- The doctor pressed on the lower-right abdominal quadrant.
- northwest quadrant
- The storm hit the northwest quadrant of the state.
Synonyms and how they differ
- quarter
- Quarter is the everyday word for one of four parts, while quadrant is more technical and used with graphs and maps.
- section
- Section is a general word for any part, with no fixed number, unlike quadrant.
- sector
- Sector is a slice of a circle of any size, whereas quadrant is exactly a quarter.
- fourth
- Fourth is a plain fraction, while quadrant refers to a defined area.
Word family
- quadrangle noun
- a four-sided figure or an open courtyard
- quadrilateral noun
- a shape with four straight sides
- quadruple adjective
- having four parts or four times as much
- quadrantal adjective
- relating to a quadrant, rare
Commonly confused: quadrant or quadrangle?
quadrant vs quadrangle
A quadrangle is a four-sided figure or a courtyard, while a quadrant is one quarter of a circle or plane.
Practice
On a graph, a point with positive x and positive y lies in the first ___.
Choose one answer.
A quadrant is one of four parts of a coordinate plane. A quadrangle is a four-sided figure, the tempting wrong choice, and quarrel and quantum are unrelated.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “quadrant”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.