Sym"bol*i`zer (?), n. One who symbolizes.
Sym`bo*log"i*cal (?), a. Pertaining to a symbology; versed in, or
characterized by, symbology.
Sym*bol"o*gist (?), n. One who practices, or who is versed in,
symbology.
Sym*bol"o*gy (?), n. [Symbol + -logy.] The art of expressing by
symbols.
||Sym*bran"chi*i (?), n. pl. [NL., fr. Gr. sy`n with + &?; a gill.]
||(Zoöl.) An order of slender eel-like fishes having the gill openings
||confluent beneath the neck. The pectoral arch is generally attached
||to the skull, and the entire margin of the upper jaw is formed by the
||premaxillary. Called also Symbranchia.
Sym"me*tral (?), a. Commensurable; symmetrical. [Obs.] Dr. H. More.
Sym*me"tri*an (?), n. One eminently studious of symmetry of parts. [R.]
Sir P. Sidney.
Sym*met"ric (?), a. Symmetrical.
Sym*met"ric*al (?), a. [Cf. F. symétrique. See Symmetry.] 1. Involving
or exhibiting symmetry; proportional in parts; having its parts in due
proportion as to dimensions; as, a symmetrical body or building.
2. (Biol.) Having the organs or parts of one side corresponding with
those of the other; having the parts in two or more series of organs
the same in number; exhibiting a symmetry. See Symmetry, 2.
3. (Bot.) (a) Having an equal number of parts in the successive circles
of floral organs; -- said of flowers. (b) Having a likeness in the form
and size of floral organs of the same kind; regular.
4. (Math.) Having a common measure; commensurable. (b) Having
corresponding parts or relations.
A curve or a plane figure is symmetrical with respect to a given line,
and a line, surface, or solid with respect to a plane, when for each
point on one side of the line or plane there is a corresponding point
on the other side, so situated that the line joining the two
corresponding points is perpendicular to the line or plane and is
bisected by it. Two solids are symmetrical when they are so situated
with respect to an intervening plane that the several points of their
surfaces thus correspond to each other in position and distance. In
analysis, an expression is symmetrical with respect to several letters
when any two of them may change places without affecting the
expression; as, the expression a2b + ab2 + a2c + ac2 + b2c + bc2, is
symmetrical with respect to the letters a, b, c.
-- Sym*met"ric*al*ly, adv. -- Sym*met"ric*al*ness, n.
Sym`me*tri"cian (?), n. Same as Symmetrian. [R.] Holinshed.
Sym"me*trist (?), n. One eminently studious of symmetry of parts. Sir
H. Wotton.
Sym"me*trize (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Symmetrized (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Symmetrizing (?).] [Cf. F. symétriser.] To make proportional in its
parts; to reduce to symmetry. Burke.
Sym"me*try (?), n. [L. symmetria, Gr. &?;; sy`n with, together + &?; a
measure: cf. F. symétrie. See Syn-, and Meter rhythm.] 1. A due
proportion of the several parts of a body to each other; adaptation of
the form or dimensions of the several parts of a thing to each other;
the union and conformity of the members of a work to the whole.
2. (Biol.) The law of likeness; similarity of structure; regularity in
form and arrangement; orderly and similar distribution of parts, such
that an animal may be divided into parts which are structurally
symmetrical.
Bilateral symmetry, or two-sidedness, in vertebrates, etc., is that in
which the body can be divided into symmetrical halves by a vertical
plane passing through the middle; radial symmetry, as in echinoderms,
is that in which the individual parts are arranged symmetrically around
a central axis; serial symmetry, or zonal symmetry, as in earthworms,
is that in which the segments or metameres of the body are disposed in
a zonal manner one after the other in a longitudinal axis. This last is
sometimes called metamerism.
3. (Bot.) (a) Equality in the number of parts of the successive circles
in a flower. (b) Likeness in the form and size of floral organs of the
same kind; regularity.
Axis of symmetry. (Geom.) See under Axis. -- Respective symmetry, that
disposition of parts in which only the opposite sides are equal to each
other.
Sym`pa*thet"ic (?), a. [See Sympathy, and cf. Pathetic.] 1. Inclined to
sympathy; sympathizing.
Far wiser he, whose sympathetic mind Exults in all the good of all
mankind.
Goldsmith.