SG Heritage Dictionary

Amplitude [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. Largeness; extent, applied to bodies; as, the amplitude of the earth.

2. Largeness; extent of capacity or intellectual powers; as, amplitude of mind.

3. Extent of means or power; abundance; sufficiency.

4. Amplitude, in astronomy, is an arch of the horizon intercepted between the east and west point, and the center of the sun or star at its rising or setting. At the rising of a star, the amplitude is eastern or ortive; at the setting, it is western, occiduous, or occasive. It is also northern or southern, when north or south of the equator.

5. Amplitude of the range, in projectiles, is the horizontal line subtending the path of a body thrown, or the line which measures the distance it has moved.

6. Magnetical amplitude is the arch of the horizon between the sun or a star, at rising or setting, and the east or west point of the horizon, by the compass. The difference between this and the true amplitude is the variation of the compass.

Amplitude [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. State of being ample; extent of surface or space; largeness of dimensions; size.

2. Largeness, in a figurative sense; breadth; abundance; fullness.

3. Of extent of capacity or intellectual powers.

4. Of extent of means or resources.

5. The arc of the horizon between the true east or west point and the center of the sun, or a star, at its rising or setting. At the rising, the amplitude is eastern or ortive: at the setting, it is western, occiduous, or occasive. It is also northern or southern, when north or south of the equator.

6. The arc of the horizon between the true east or west point and the foot of the vertical circle passing through any star or object.

7. The horizontal line which measures the distance to which a projectile is thrown; the range.

8. The extent of a movement measured from the starting point or position of equilibrium; -- applied especially to vibratory movements.

9. An angle upon which the value of some function depends; -- a term used more especially in connection with elliptic functions.

Amplitude Encyclopedia Britannica

AMPLITUDE, in Astronomy, is the amount of deviation towards the north or south of a celestial object from the true east at rising, and the true wèst at setting. For the fixed stars it is constant; for the sun and planets it varies with the declination. At the equinoxes the sun rises exactly in the east, and sets in the west point,—the amplitude then is zero; at the solstices it amounts at London to 39° 44'.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 1, p. 776
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