DIME Dime, n. Etym: [F. dîme tithe, OF. disme, fr. L. decimus the tenth, fr. decem ten. See Decimal.]
Defn: A silver coin of the United States, of the value of ten cents; the tenth of a dollar. Dime novel, a novel, commonly sensational and trashy, which is sold for a dime, or ten cents.
DIMENSION
Di*men"sion, n. Etym: [L. dimensio, fr. dimensus, p. p. of dimetiri
to measure out; di- = dis- + metiri to measure: cf. F. dimension. See
Measure.]
1. Measure in a single line, as length, breadth, height, thickness, or circumference; extension; measurement; — usually, in the plural, measure in length and breadth, or in length, breadth, and thickness; extent; size; as, the dimensions of a room, or of a ship; the dimensions of a farm, of a kingdom. Gentlemen of more than ordinary dimensions. W. Irving. Space of dimension, extension that has length but no breadth or thickness; a straight or curved line. — Space of two dimensions, extension which has length and breadth, but no thickness; a plane or curved surface. — Space of three dimensions, extension which has length, breadth, and thickness; a solid. — Space of four dimensions, as imaginary kind of extension, which is assumed to have length, breadth, thickness, and also a fourth imaginary dimension. Space of five or six, or more dimensions is also sometimes assumed in mathematics.
2. Extent; reach; scope; importance; as, a project of large dimensions.
3. (Math.)
Defn: The degree of manifoldness of a quantity; as, time is quantity having one dimension; volume has three dimensions, relative to extension.
4. (Alg.)
Defn: A literal factor, as numbered in characterizing a term. The term dimensions forms with the cardinal numbers a phrase equivalent to degree with the ordinal; thus, a2b2c is a term of five dimensions, or of the fifth degree.
5. pl. (Phys.)