superficies
nounUK /ˌsuː.pəˈfɪʃ.i.iːz/ · US /ˌsu.pɚˈfɪˌʃiz/
Etymology Borrowing from Latin superficiēs (“top, surface”), from super- (“above, over”) + faciēs (“form, configuration, shape”). Doublet of surface.
› A two-dimensional magnitude that has length…
1
Geometry, Mathematics, Sciences The area of a two-dimensional surface.
2
Geometry, Mathematics, Sciences The visible, external surface of a body.
- The Superficies was compoſed of ſeveral bits of Wood, about the bigneſs of a Dye, but ſome larger than others.1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Permitted to See the Grand Academy of Lagado. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part III (A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdribb, Luggnagg, and Japan), page 72:
3
The surface (of something immaterial, especially of the mind or soul).
- An immense metropolis, like London, is calculated to make men selfish and uninteresting. … They present but the cold superficies of character—its rich and genial qualities have no time to be warmed into a flow.1819, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Rural Life in England:
4
Law A building intimately associated with the land on which it is built.
- Related terms
- superficial, superficiary