01 a. Of or pertaining to the tropics; characteristic of, or incident to, the tropics; being within the tropics; as, tropical climate; tropical l…
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1.
Of or pertaining to the tropics; characteristic of, or incident to, the tropics; being within the tropics; as, tropical climate; tropical latitudes; tropical heat; tropical diseases.
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2.
Rhetorically changed from its exact original sense; being of the nature of a trope; figurative; metaphorical.“The foundation of all parables is some analogy or similitude between the tropical or allusive part of the parable and the thing intended by it.” — South.
Phrases & compounds
Tropic year —
the solar year; the period occupied by the sun in passing from one tropic or one equinox to the same again, having a mean length of 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 46.0 seconds, which is 20 minutes, 23.3 seconds shorter than the sidereal year, on account of the precession of the equinoxes.