Emily Dickinson Lexicon
Definition for TROP'IC
TROP'IC, n. [Fr. tropique; L. tropicus; from the Gr. τροπη, a turning; τρεπω, to turn.]
- In astronomy, a circle of the sphere drawn through a solstitial point, parallel to the equator; or the line which bounds the sun's declination from the equator north or south. This declination is twenty-three degrees and a half nearly. There are two tropics; the tropic of Cancer, on the north of the equator, and the tropic of Capricorn on the south.
- Tropics, in geography, are two lesser circles of the globe, drawn parallel to the equator through the beginning of Cancer and of Capricorn.
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