ordinate
    n 1: the value of a coordinate on the vertical axis
    v 1: appoint to a clerical posts; "he was ordained in the
         Church" [syn: ordain, consecrate, ordinate, order]
    2: bring (components or parts) into proper or desirable
       coordination correlation; "align the wheels of my car";
       "ordinate similar parts" [syn: align, ordinate,
       coordinate]

Ordinate \Or"di*nate\, a. [L. ordinatus, p. p. of ordinare. See
   Ordain.]
   Well-ordered; orderly; regular; methodical. "A life blissful
   and ordinate." --Chaucer.
   [1913 Webster]

   Ordinate figure (Math.), a figure whose sides and angles
      are equal; a regular figure.
      [1913 Webster]

Ordinate \Or"di*nate\, n. (Geom.)
   The distance of any point in a curve or a straight line,
   measured on a line called the axis of ordinates or on a line
   parallel to it, from another line called the axis of
   abscissas, on which the corresponding abscissa of the point
   is measured.
   [1913 Webster]

   Note: The ordinate and abscissa, taken together, are called
         coordinates, and define the position of the point with
         reference to the two axes named, the intersection of
         which is called the origin of coordinates. In a typical
         two-dimensional plot, viewed on a plane graph in its
         normal orientation with perpendicular axes, the
         ordinate is the vertical axis; when the axes are
         labeled as x and y, it is the y-axis. See Coordinate.
         [1913 Webster +PJC]

Ordinate \Or"di*nate\, v. t.
   To appoint, to regulate; to harmonize. --Bp. Hall.
   [1913 Webster]

ordinate

    The y-coordinate on an (x,y) graph; the output
   of a function plotted against its input.

   x is the "abscissa".

   See Cartesian coordinates.

   (1997-07-08)