spline

/ˈsplaɪ̯n/

spline noun: a long, thin piece of metal or wood.

Image: Pearson Scott Foresman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

spline (plural splines)

A long, thin piece of metal or wood.
A strip of wood or other material inserted into grooves in each of two pieces of wood to provide additional surface for gluing.
A flexible strip of metal or other material, that may be bent into a curve and used in a similar manner to a ruler to draw smooth curves between points.
Any of a number of smooth curves used to join points.
- However, it should be possible to give more sophisticated spherical spline curves based on the de Castaljau method that are computed using multiple slerps between pairs of points and which work well for arbitrary knot positions (indeed, knot insertion methods for spline curves should suffice for...2001 April, Samuel R. Buss, Jay P Fillmore, “Spherical averages and applications to spherical splines and interpolation”, in ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), volume 20, number 2
- These conditions provide a framework which encompasses some notable approximation kernels including splines, so-called cardinal functions, and many radial basis functions such as the Gaussians and general multiquadrics.2016, Keaton Hamm, Jeff Ledford, “Regular Families of Kernels for Nonlinear Approximation”, in arXiv
A ridge or tooth on a drive shaft that meshes with a corresponding groove in a mating piece and transfers torque to it, maintaining the angular correspondence between the pieces; either the ridge or the groove, as part of a set of both (splines); the whole set of ridges and grooves.
A rectangular piece that fits grooves like key seats in a hub and a shaft, so that while the one may slide endwise on the other, both must revolve together.
- Near-synonym: feather
Synonyms:

feather

Verb

spline (third-person singular simple present splines, present participle splining, simple past and past participle splined)

To smooth (a curve or surface) by means of a spline.
To fit with a spline.
- Machining a straight spline with a lathe. Sometimes the task of splining a shaft comes up during a repair. Instead of sending out the job, use this setup to mill the splines on a lathe.1965 August, Popular Science, volume 187, number 2, page 133
To fasten to or together with a spline.
- Engineers did not think two crankshafts could be synchronized. Wood, by splining the shafts in each gear box, proved it could be done.1935 September, Popular Mechanics, volume 64, number 3, page 408
- These packs can be holding or driving devices, depending on what they are splined to.2004, Jack Erjavec, TechOne automatic transmissions, page 311

spline meaning in Tamil

spline in Tamil

செவ்வகச்சாவி

Synonyms of spline

feather

Forms of spline

Noun
plural	splines
Verb
third-person singular present	splines
present participle	splining
past participle	splined
past	splined

Origin of spline

Mid-1700s East Anglian dialect. Origin uncertain but perhaps from Old Danish splind or North Frisian splinj and ultimately related to the root of splinter.

Words formed from spline

Words that rhyme with spline

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about spline

What does spline mean?: Spline means a long, thin piece of metal or wood.
What is spline in Tamil?: Spline in Tamil is செவ்வகச்சாவி. See Spline meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is spline?: Spline can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce spline?: Spline is pronounced /ˈsplaɪ̯n/.
What is the plural of spline?: The plural of spline is splines.

Words near spline in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: spline (page history and authors); spline (Tamil Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

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

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