Link Centre Dictionary

relativity

re·la·ti·vity

UK/ɹɛl.əˈtɪv.ɪ.ti/ US/-ɾi/ uncommon

noun

Origin

From relative (“connected to or depending on something else”) + -ity (suffix forming nouns from adjectives where the nouns refer to the properties, qualities, or states described by the adjectives). Sense 2.1 (“reliance of the nature of physical phenomena on the relative motion between an observer and the thing observed”) is a translation of German Relativität (“relativity”) used in the works of the German-American theoretical physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955). Morphologically relative + -ity.

Phrases

  • Einsteinian relativity
  • Galilean relativity
  • general relativity
  • principle of relativity
  • special relativity
  • theory of relativity

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.