Definition of "curvature" [cur•va•ture]

• The act of curving or the state of being curved. (noun)
• Mathematics The ratio of the change in the angle of a tangent that moves over a given arc to the length of the arc. (noun)
• Mathematics The limit of this ratio as the length of the arc approaches zero. (noun)
• Mathematics The reciprocal of the radius of a circle. (noun)
• Medicine A curving or bending, especially an abnormal one: curvature of the spine. (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 curvature of the spine, spoken of in this work as so common, and as the cause of so many diseases among American women, is what is denominated the _lateral curvature_, and is much more dangerous than the other distortion."
• "The Weyl curvature is zero on both the future boundary and past boundary, hence the Big Bang is still well-defined in the cyclic model as the unique hypersurface on which the Weyl curvature vanishes."
• "It is proposed to abolish the jog, and to swing the east curvature from the east side of Yonge Street opposite College Street south-easterly into Carlton Street at a width of. 100 feet, immediately to the west of the prolongation of Victoria Street, to reduce the width to 80 feet and extend it through at an 80-foot width to Jarvis Street."