Part 1063

The believers in pretended miracles have always previously symbolized with the performers of them.

G. S. Faber.

3. To use symbols; to represent ideas symbolically.

Sym"bol*ize, v. t. 1. To make to agree in properties or qualities.

2. To make representative of something; to regard or treat as symbolic. "Some symbolize the same from the mystery of its colors." Sir T. Browne.

3. To represent by a symbol or symbols.

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.