Word.ws English Dictionary

cartesian

/kɑː(ɹ)ˈtiːziən//kɑɹˈti.ʒən/

cartesian is the alternative letter-case form of Cartesian.

Adjective capitalized: Cartesian

Cartesian (not comparable)

  1. Of, or pertaining to, Descartes, his mathematical methods, or his philosophy, especially with regard to its emphasis on logical analysis and its mechanistic interpretation of physical nature.
    • Others within the Cartesian tradition took the idea of a light-bearing medium in quite different directions. For instance, in 1690 Christiaan Huygens considered light to be a sequence of pulses traveling at a finite velocity within the medium.2014, Peter Pesic, Music and the Making of Modern Science
  2. Of, or pertaining to, co-ordinates based on mutually orthogonal axes.

Noun capitalized: Cartesian

Cartesian (plural Cartesians)

  1. One who follows the philosophy of Cartesianism.
  2. (rare) The Chartreux cat.

Synonyms of cartesian

Forms of cartesian

pluralCartesians

Origin of cartesian

From the New Latin Cartesiānus, from Cartesius (“René Descartes”).

Words formed from cartesian

Phrases with cartesian

6 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with cartesian

Questions about cartesian

What does cartesian mean?
Cartesian means of, or pertaining to, Descartes, his mathematical methods, or his philosophy, especially with regard to its emphasis on logical analysis and its mechanistic interpretation of physical nature.
What is cartesian the alternative letter-case form of?
Cartesian is the alternative letter-case form of Cartesian.
What part of speech is cartesian?
Cartesian can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce cartesian?
Cartesian is pronounced /kɑː(ɹ)ˈtiːziən/ (UK).

Words near cartesian in the dictionary

  1. Carterton
  2. cartes
  3. cartes anglaises
  4. cartes blanches
  5. cartes de visite
  6. cartesian
  7. Cartesian circle
  8. Cartesian circles
  9. Cartesian closed categories
  10. Cartesian closed category
  11. Cartesian coordinate

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cartesian (page history and authors); Cartesian (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Cartesian.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-TranqyPoo-Cartesian.wav.

Cite this entry: “cartesian.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cartesian. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.