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What does Surface mean?

Definitions for Surface
ˈsɜr fɪssur·face

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word Surface.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. surfacenoun

    the outer boundary of an artifact or a material layer constituting or resembling such a boundary

    "there is a special cleaner for these surfaces"; "the cloth had a pattern of red dots on a white surface"

  2. surfacenoun

    the extended two-dimensional outer boundary of a three-dimensional object

    "they skimmed over the surface of the water"; "a brush small enough to clean every dental surface"; "the sun has no distinct surface"

  3. surface, Earth's surfacenoun

    the outermost level of the land or sea

    "earthquakes originate far below the surface"; "three quarters of the Earth's surface is covered by water"

  4. surfacenoun

    a superficial aspect as opposed to the real nature of something

    "it was not what it appeared to be on the surface"

  5. open, surfacenoun

    information that has become public

    "all the reports were out in the open"; "the facts had been brought to the surface"

  6. airfoil, aerofoil, control surface, surfaceadjective

    a device that provides reactive force when in motion relative to the surrounding air; can lift or control a plane in flight

  7. surfaceverb

    on the surface

    "surface materials of the moon"

  8. surface, come up, rise up, riseverb

    come to the surface

  9. coat, surfaceverb

    put a coat on; cover the surface of; furnish with a surface

    "coat the cake with chocolate"

  10. come on, come out, turn up, surface, show upverb

    appear or become visible; make a showing

    "She turned up at the funeral"; "I hope the list key is going to surface again"

GCIDE

  1. Surfaceverb

    To rise from the depths of a liquid to the surface; as, the submarine surfaced to recharge its batteries.

  2. Surfaceverb

    To become known or public; -- said of information.

  3. Surfaceverb

    To show up, as a person who was in hiding; as, he absconded with the payroll and surfaced in Argentina.

Wiktionary

  1. surfacenoun

    The up-side of a flat object such as a table, or of a liquid.

  2. surfacenoun

    The outside hull of a tangible object.

  3. surfacenoun

    The locus of an equation (especially one with exactly two degrees of freedom) in a more-than-two-dimensional space.

  4. surfaceverb

    To provide something with a surface.

  5. surfaceverb

    To apply a surface to something.

  6. surfaceverb

    To rise to the surface.

  7. surfaceverb

    To come out of hiding.

  8. surfaceverb

    For information or facts to become known.

  9. surfaceverb

    To work a mine near the surface.

  10. surfaceverb

    To appear or be found.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Surfacenoun

    Superficies; outside; superfice. It is accented by John Milton on the last syllable.

    Etymology: sur and face, French.

    Which of us who beholds the bright surface
    Of this ethereous mold, whereon we stand. John Milton.

    All their surfaces shall be truly plain, or truly spherical, and look all the same way, so as together to compose one even surface. Isaac Newton, Opt.

    Errours like straws upon the surface flow;
    He who would search for pearls must dive below. Dryden.

Wikipedia

  1. Surface

    A surface, as the term is most generally used, is the outermost or uppermost layer of a physical object or space. It is the portion or region of the object that can first be perceived by an observer using the senses of sight and touch, and is the portion with which other materials first interact. The surface of an object is more than "a mere geometric solid", but is "filled with, spread over by, or suffused with perceivable qualities such as color and warmth".The concept of surface has been abstracted and formalized in mathematics, specifically in geometry. Depending on the properties on which the emphasis is given, there are several non equivalent such formalizations, that are all called surface, sometimes with some qualifier, such as algebraic surface, smooth surface or fractal surface. The concept of surface and its mathematical abstraction are both widely used in physics, engineering, computer graphics, and many other disciplines, primarily in representing the surfaces of physical objects. For example, in analyzing the aerodynamic properties of an airplane, the central consideration is the flow of air along its surface. The concept also raises certain philosophical questions—for example, how thick is the layer of atoms or molecules that can be considered part of the surface of an object (i.e., where does the "surface" end and the "interior" begin), and do objects really have a surface at all if, at the subatomic level, they never actually come in contact with other objects.

ChatGPT

  1. surface

    A surface refers to the external part or layer of something often perceived through the sense of touch, or the outer face, outside, or exterior boundary of an object or entity. It can also refer to the outermost covering or uppermost layer of a particular matter, or the visible top layer of something. Additionally, it can also refer to the extent or expanse of an object's outer face. In mathematics, a surface refers to a continuous two-dimensional figure that extends in all spatial directions.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Surfacenoun

    the exterior part of anything that has length and breadth; one of the limits that bound a solid, esp. the upper face; superficies; the outside; as, the surface of the earth; the surface of a diamond; the surface of the body

  2. Surfacenoun

    hence, outward or external appearance

  3. Surfacenoun

    a magnitude that has length and breadth without thickness; superficies; as, a plane surface; a spherical surface

  4. Surfacenoun

    that part of the side which is terminated by the flank prolonged, and the angle of the nearest bastion

  5. Surfaceverb

    to give a surface to; especially, to cause to have a smooth or plain surface; to make smooth or plain

  6. Surfaceverb

    to work over the surface or soil of, as ground, in hunting for gold

  7. Etymology: [F. See Sur-, and Face, and cf. Superficial.]

Wikidata

  1. Surface

    In mathematics, specifically, in topology, a surface is a two-dimensional, topological manifold. The most familiar examples are those that arise as the boundaries of solid objects in ordinary three-dimensional Euclidean space R³ — for example, the surface of a ball. On the other hand, there are surfaces, such as the Klein bottle, that cannot be embedded in three-dimensional Euclidean space without introducing singularities or self-intersections. To say that a surface is "two-dimensional" means that, about each point, there is a coordinate patch on which a two-dimensional coordinate system is defined. For example, the surface of the Earth is a two-dimensional sphere, and latitude and longitude provide two-dimensional coordinates on it. The concept of surface finds application in physics, engineering, computer graphics, and many other disciplines, primarily in representing the surfaces of physical objects. For example, in analyzing the aerodynamic properties of an airplane, the central consideration is the flow of air along its surface.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Surface

    sur′fās, n. the exterior part of anything.—adj. Sur′faced, having a surface.—ns. Sur′faceman, a miner employed in open-air working: a workman employed in keeping a railway-bed in repair; Sur′face-print′ing, printing from a relief surface, as cotton-cloth; Sur′facer, one who, or that which, smooths or levels a surface; Sur′face-ten′sion, in liquids, that property in virtue of which a liquid surface behaves as if it were a stretched elastic membrane—say a sheet of india-rubber; Sur′face-wa′ter, drainage-water; Sur′facing, the act of giving a certain surface to anything. [Fr., from sur—L. super, and face—L. facies.]

The Standard Electrical Dictionary

  1. Surface

    A galvanic battery is arranged in surface when all the positive plates are connected together and all the negative plates are also connected. This makes it equivalent to one large cell, the surface of whose plates would be equal to the aggregate surface of the plates of the battery. It is also used as an adjective, as "a surface arrangement of battery."

Military Dictionary and Gazetteer

  1. surface

    In fortification, that part of the side which is terminated by the flank prolonged, and the angle of the nearest bastion; the double of this line with the curtain is equal to the exterior side.

Rap Dictionary

  1. surface

    Membership Unknown Allies Crips, Bloods, Piru, and Nuestra Familia Rivals Zoner Nation and Various gangs

Editors Contribution

  1. surface

    A type of material.

    The surface of the cooker was made of a variety of materials.


    Submitted by MaryC on February 27, 2020  

  2. surface

    An area or space.

    The surface of the desk was ample for them to work efficiently.


    Submitted by MaryC on April 14, 2020  

Suggested Resources

  1. surface

    Song lyrics by surface -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by surface on the Lyrics.com website.

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. SURFACE

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Surface is ranked #12929 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Surface surname appeared 2,377 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 would have the surname Surface.

    94.1% or 2,237 total occurrences were White.
    2% or 48 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
    1.7% or 42 total occurrences were of two or more races.
    1.3% or 32 total occurrences were American Indian or Alaskan Native.
    0.5% or 12 total occurrences were Asian.
    0.2% or 6 total occurrences were Black.

Matched Categories

British National Corpus

  1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'Surface' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #1099

  2. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'Surface' in Written Corpus Frequency: #2831

  3. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'Surface' in Nouns Frequency: #431

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

How to pronounce Surface?

How to say Surface in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of Surface in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of Surface in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1

Examples of Surface in a Sentence

  1. David Clarke:

    When you apply a voltage to them relative to some background there is an attractive force between the nanowires and the substrate that deforms the elastomer, elastomer rubber is very soft and so the surface becomes rough, and it is that roughness that scatters light.

  2. Allakhverdi Mamedov:

    When the fire started, we sat in two lifeboats, but did not put them down on the sea surface as we were afraid that a storm could break them into pieces, we were sitting and waiting for rescuers, when the hawsers of the other boat ripped, it dropped into the water and collapsed. Hawsers, which were holding other boats, broke as they did not withstand the pressure from the storm.

  3. Jason McLellan:

    What weve been able to do is produce the molecule thats on the surface of the coronavirus in our lab. So the surface of the virus contains these spike molecules that sort of resemble mushrooms and they use these molecules to bind to our cells and then cause the virus to enter the cells, so we really want to target these spikes to prevent their function and prevent the virus from getting into our cell.

  4. The NHC:

    Recent satellite-derived surface winds also indicated that a broad low-pressure system has formed in association with the wave.

  5. David Blewett:

    I am very lucky to have been part of the MESSENGER science team since before the first Mercury flyby, i was among the first humans to see the stark beauty of what was once 'Mercury incognito.' I have been working with a super team of scientists and engineers, and made good friends. It will be sad when the radio tracking tells us that the spacecraft made its final orbit, knowing that a tiny new impact crater has appeared on the surface.

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Popularity rank by frequency of use

Surface#1#1653#10000

References

Translations for Surface

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"Surface." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 22 Nov. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/Surface>.

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    long and thin and often limp
    A currish
    B lank
    C repugnant
    D sesquipedalian

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