Longitude

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language

·noun Length; measure or distance along the longest line;

— distinguished from breadth or thickness; as, the longitude of a room; rare now, except in a humorous sense.

II. Longitude ·noun The distance in degrees, reckoned from the vernal equinox, on the ecliptic, to a circle at right angles to the ecliptic passing through the heavenly body whose longitude is designated; as, the longitude of Capella is 79°.

III. Longitude ·noun The arc or portion of the equator intersected between the meridian of a given place and the meridian of some other place from which longitude is reckoned, as from Greenwich, England, or sometimes from the capital of a country, as from Washington or Paris. The longitude of a place is expressed either in degrees or in time; as, that of New York is 74° or 4h. 56m. west of Greenwich.