Definition of "abscissa" [ab•scis•sa]

• The coordinate representing the position of a point along a line perpendicular to the y-axis in a plane Cartesian coordinate system. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The curve also applies if the abscissa is changed to ‘Amount in Savings’."
• "The independent - variable coordinate (usually x) of a point on the Cartesian plane is called the abscissa, and the dependent-variable coordinate (usually y) is called the ordi - nate."
• "One such event is shown on the picture on the right: they infer that an air shower passed through the detector by observing The number of muons seen underground is an excellent estimator of the energy of the primary cosmic ray, as the Kascade collaboration result shown on the left shows (on the abscissa is the logarithm of the energy of the primary cosmic ray, and on the y axis the number of muons per square meter measured by the detector)."