Ab-sçis'să, n.

n.; pl. Lat. ABSCISSÆ, Eng. ABSCISSES. [Lat. abscissus, p. p. of abscindere, Fr. abscisse. See ABSCIND.] (Geom.) One of the elements of reference by which a point, as of a curve, is referred to a system of fixed rectilineal coordinate axes. When referred to two intersecting axes, one of them called the axis of abscissas, or of X, and the other the axis of ordinates, or of Y, the abscissa of the point is the distance cut off from the axis of X by a line drawn through it and parallel to the axis of Y. When a point in space is referred to three axes having a common intersection, the abscissa may be the distance measured parallel to either of two of them, X or Y, the distance on a parallel to the third, Z, being called the ordinate. Abscissas and ordinates taken together are called coördinates. Davies of Peck.—O X or P Y is the abscissa of the point P of the curve, O Y or P X its ordinate, the intersecting lines O X and O Y being the axes of abscissas and ordinates respectively, and the point O their origin.