Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Isotropic
/ˌaɪsəˈtrɒpɪk/adjective
Having the same physical properties measured in any direction.
The Greek roots
ἴσος
ísos
equal, same
τρόπος
trópos
turn, direction
Literally: “equal in every turning”
The story of the word
Wood is the standing counterexample: it splits along the grain and holds across it, so it is anisotropic, and so is almost every crystal. Glass and still water are isotropic, which is why they bend light identically whichever face it enters. The same τρόπος gives "trope", a turn of phrase, and the tropics, the latitude where the sun turns back.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
isoscelesisotopetropeheliotropeisobar
In a sentence
The model assumes an isotropic medium, which the rock underneath the site plainly is not.