Word.ws English Dictionary

rectilineous

rectilineous is the obsolete form of rectilinear.

Meaning of rectilinear

Adjective

rectilinear (comparative more rectilinear, superlative most rectilinear)

  1. In a straight line.
    • The crankshaft and connecting rods of an engine convert the rectilinear motion of the pistons to rotary motion of the flywheel.
  2. Formed from straight lines.
    • 10. A Chiltern Railways 2023 rectilinear diagram.2026 August 19, Andy Comfort, “Mapping Britain's railways”, in RAIL, number 1068, page 25, diagram caption

Forms of rectilineous

comparativemore rectilineous
superlativemost rectilineous

Questions about rectilineous

What is rectilineous the obsolete form of?
Rectilineous is the obsolete form of rectilinear.

Words near rectilineous in the dictionary

  1. rectilinearized
  2. rectilinearizes
  3. rectilinearizing
  4. rectilinearly
  5. rectilinearness
  6. rectilineous
  7. rectimarginate
  8. Rectina
  9. rectinerved
  10. rection
  11. rections

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rectilineous (page history and authors); rectilinear (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.

Last updated:

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