-symmes-

{ } a. [ See Asymmetrous. ] 1. Incommensurable. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Not symmetrical; wanting proportion; esp., not bilaterally symmetrical. Huxley. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Gr. &unr_;. ] Asymmetrical. [ Obs. ] Barrow. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Gr. &unr_;; 'a priv. + &unr_; symmetry. ] 1. Want of symmetry, or proportion between the parts of a thing, esp. lack of bilateral symmetry. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Math.) Incommensurability. [ Obs. ] Barrow. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Not having symmetry; asymmetrical; unsymmetrical. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Pref. dis- + symmetry. ] Absence or defect of symmetry; asymmetry. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. [ Mono- + symmetric, -ical. ] (Crystallog.) Same as Monoclinic. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Crystallog.) Exhibiting pseudo-symmetry. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Pseudo- + symmetry. ] (Crystallog.) A kind of symmetry characteristic of certain crystals which from twinning, or other causes, come to resemble forms of a system other than that to which they belong, as the apparently hexagonal prisms of aragonite. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Commensurable; symmetrical. [ Obs. ] Dr. H. More. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One eminently studious of symmetry of parts. [ R. ] Sir P. Sidney. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Symmetrical. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. symétrique. See Symmetry. ] 1. Involving or exhibiting symmetry; proportional in parts; having its parts in due proportion as to dimensions; as, a symmetrical body or building. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Biol.) Having the organs or parts of one side corresponding with those of the other; having the parts in two or more series of organs the same in number; exhibiting a symmetry. See Symmetry, 2. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Bot.) (a) Having an equal number of parts in the successive circles of floral organs; -- said of flowers. (b) Having a likeness in the form and size of floral organs of the same kind; regular. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Math.) Having a common measure; commensurable. (b) Having corresponding parts or relations. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ A curve or a plane figure is symmetrical with respect to a given line, and a line, surface, or solid with respect to a plane, when for each point on one side of the line or plane there is a corresponding point on the other side, so situated that the line joining the two corresponding points is perpendicular to the line or plane and is bisected by it. Two solids are symmetrical when they are so situated with respect to an intervening plane that the several points of their surfaces thus correspond to each other in position and distance. In analysis, an expression is symmetrical with respect to several letters when any two of them may change places without affecting the expression; as, the expression a2b + ab2 + a2c + ac2 + b2c + bc2, is symmetrical with respect to the letters a, b, c. [ 1913 Webster ]

-- Sym*met"ric*al*ly, adv. -- Sym*met"ric*al*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Same as Symmetrian. [ R. ] Holinshed. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One eminently studious of symmetry of parts. Sir H. Wotton. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Symmetrized p. pr. & vb. n. Symmetrizing ] [ Cf. F. symétriser. ] To make proportional in its parts; to reduce to symmetry. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. symmetria, Gr. &unr_;; sy`n with, together + &unr_; a measure: cf. F. symétrie. See Syn-, and Meter rhythm. ] 1. A due proportion of the several parts of a body to each other; adaptation of the form or dimensions of the several parts of a thing to each other; the union and conformity of the members of a work to the whole. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Biol.) The law of likeness; similarity of structure; regularity in form and arrangement; orderly and similar distribution of parts, such that an animal may be divided into parts which are structurally symmetrical. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Bilateral symmetry, or two-sidedness, in vertebrates, etc., is that in which the body can be divided into symmetrical halves by a vertical plane passing through the middle; radial symmetry, as in echinoderms, is that in which the individual parts are arranged symmetrically around a central axis; serial symmetry, or zonal symmetry, as in earthworms, is that in which the segments or metameres of the body are disposed in a zonal manner one after the other in a longitudinal axis. This last is sometimes called metamerism. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Bot.) (a) Equality in the number of parts of the successive circles in a flower. (b) Likeness in the form and size of floral organs of the same kind; regularity. [ 1913 Webster ]

Axis of symmetry. (Geom.) See under Axis. --
Respective symmetry, that disposition of parts in which only the opposite sides are equal to each other. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Wanting in symmetry, or due proportion of parts. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Biol.) Not symmetrical; being without symmetry, as the parts of a flower when similar parts are of different size and shape, or when the parts of successive circles differ in number. See Symmetry. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Chem.) Being without symmetry of chemical structure or relation; as, an unsymmetrical carbon atom. [ 1913 Webster ]

Unsymmetrical carbon atom (Chem.), one which is united at once to four different atoms or radicals. This condition usually occasions physical isomerism, with the attendant action on polarized light. [ 1913 Webster ]