graticule

English

WOTD – 2 November 2025

Etymology

The graticule (sense 1.2) or reticle of a Bell & Howell pocket comparator, an optical instrument used for measurement.
The graticule (sense 1.2) or reticle of the telescopic sight mounted on a SVD sniper rifle.

Borrowed from French graticule, from Medieval Latin grātīcula, from Latin crāticula (“grating, grill”), from crātis (“hurdle; wickerwork”)[1][2] (probably from Proto-Indo-European *kréh₂-tis (“fenced handiwork”)) + -cula (feminine form of -culus, a variant of -ulus (“diminutive suffix”)).

Pronunciation

Noun

graticule (plural graticules)

  1. A grid of horizontal and vertical lines; specifically, one used as a guide to proportionately enlarge or reduce a drawing.
    1. (geography) The network of lines of latitude and longitude that make up a coordinate system such as the one used for charts and maps of the Earth.
    3. (UK, optics) Synonym of reticle (“a transparent plate marked with a crosshair, grid, or scale which is used in an optical instrument, etc., to aid in alignment, counting, or measurement of objects being observed; also, the crosshair, grid, or scale on such a plate”).
      Synonym: reticule
  2. (by extension) A (nearly) rectangular or square region created by a grid of horizontal and vertical lines.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

References

  1. ^ “graticule, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2025.
  2. ^ “graticule, n.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

Further reading

Anagrams

French

Etymology

From Medieval Latin grātīcula, from Latin crāticula (“grating, grill”), from crātis (“hurdle; wickerwork”) (probably from Proto-Indo-European *kréh₂-tis (“fenced handiwork”)) + -cula (feminine form of -culus, a variant of -ulus (“diminutive suffix”)).

Pronunciation

Noun

graticule m (plural graticules)

  1. graticule

Descendants

  • → English: graticule

Further reading

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.