TORUS
What does "TORUS" mean?
A doughnut-shaped surface or solid generated by rotating a circle around an axis that does not touch it.
Meanings
- A ring-shaped surface of revolution, the mathematical shape of a doughnut or inner tube. A coffee mug and a torus are topologically identical because each has exactly one hole. technical
- In classical architecture, a large convex semicircular moulding at the base of a column. The column rests on a torus that flares out to meet the plinth. technical
Did you know?
- To a topologist a doughnut and a coffee mug are the same object - both are a torus, a surface with exactly one hole, so one bends smoothly into the other.
- Fusion reactors like ITER trap a 150-million-degree plasma inside a magnetic torus, because a ring has no walls for the superheated gas to crash into.
Word origin
From Latin 'torus', meaning a swelling, a bulge, a cushion, or the round moulding at a column's base; the geometric sense was applied to the ring shape it resembles.
Remember it
TORUS sounds like 'taurus' - picture a bull running in an endless ring; the ring is the doughnut, the hole is the bullring.
A little poem
A ring is a circle that learned to swallow space,
one hole it can never close-
even the mug on your desk is wearing this face.
tercet
Wordplay
- A topologist can't tell a doughnut from a coffee mug - which is why she never knows whether she's having breakfast or a snack.
What it teaches
The hole is what defines the ring; sometimes the absence at the center is the whole point.
Quick facts
What does TORUS mean?
A doughnut-shaped surface or solid generated by rotating a circle around an axis that does not touch it.
Is TORUS a valid word?
Yes — TORUS is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is TORUS?
TORUS has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does TORUS come from?
From Latin 'torus', meaning a swelling, a bulge, a cushion, or the round moulding at a column's base; the geometric sense was applied to the ring shape it resembles.
What can TORUS teach us?
The hole is what defines the ring; sometimes the absence at the center is the whole point.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.