Word Meanings - VIRTUAL - Book Publishers vocabulary database

1. Having the power of acting or of invisible efficacy without the agency of the material or sensible part; potential; energizing. Heat and cold have a virtual transition, without communication of substance. Bacon. Every kind that lives, Fomented

Additional info about word: VIRTUAL

1. Having the power of acting or of invisible efficacy without the agency of the material or sensible part; potential; energizing. Heat and cold have a virtual transition, without communication of substance. Bacon. Every kind that lives, Fomented by his virtual power, and warmed. Milton. 2. Being in essence or effect, not in fact; as, the virtual presence of a man in his agent or substitute. A thing has a virtual existence when it has all the conditions necessary to its actual existence. Fleming. To mask by slight differences in the manners a virtual identity in the substance. De Quincey. Principle of virtual velocities , the law that when several forces are in equilibrium, the algebraic sum of their virtual moments is equal to zero. -- Virtual focus , the point from which rays, having been rendered divergent by reflection of refraction, appear to issue; the point at which converging rays would meet if not reflected or refracted before they reach it. -- Virtual image. See under Image. -- Virtual moment , the product of the intensity of the force multiplied by the virtual velocity of its point of application; -- sometimes called virtual work. -- Virtual velocity , a minute hypothetical displacement, assumed in analysis to facilitate the investigation of statical problems. With respect to any given force of a number of forces holding a material system in equilibrium, it is the projection, upon the direction of the force, of a line joining its point of application with a new position of that point indefinitely near to the first, to which the point is conceived to have been moved, without disturbing the equilibrium of the system, or the connections of its parts with each other. Strictly speaking, it is not a velocity but a length. -- Virtual work. See Virtual moment, above.

Possible synonyms: (Same meaning words of VIRTUAL)

• Potential
• Possible
• implicit
• undeveloped
• germinative
• immanent
• virtual

Related words: (words related to VIRTUAL)

• IMPLICITNESS
  State or quality of being implicit.
• IMPLICITY
  Implicitness. Cotgrave.
• POTENTIAL
  1. Being potent; endowed with energy adequate to a result; efficacious; influential. "And hath in his effect a voice potential." Shak. 2. Existing in possibility, not in actuality. "A potential hero." Carlyle. Potential existence means merely
• POTENTIALITY
  The quality or state of being potential; possibility, not actuality; inherent capability or disposition, not actually exhibited.
• GERMINATIVE
  Pertaining to germination; having power to bud or develop. Germinative spot, Germinative vesicle. Same as Germinal spot, Germinal vesicle, under Germinal.
• POTENTIALLY
  1. With power; potently. 2. In a potential manner; possibly, not positively. The duration of human souls is only potentially infinite. Bentley.
• IMPLICITLY
  1. In an implicit manner; without reserve; with unreserved confidence. Not to dispute the methods of his providence, but humbly and implicitly to acquiesce in and adore them. Atterbury. 2. By implication; impliedly; as, to deny the providence of
• IMPLICIT
  1. Infolded; entangled; complicated; involved. Milton. In his woolly fleece I cling implicit. Pope. 2. Tacitly comprised; fairly to be understood, though not expressed in words; implied; as, an implicit contract or agreement. South. 3. Resting
• VIRTUAL
  1. Having the power of acting or of invisible efficacy without the agency of the material or sensible part; potential; energizing. Heat and cold have a virtual transition, without communication of substance. Bacon. Every kind that lives, Fomented
• POSSIBLE
  Capable of existing or occurring, or of being conceived or thought of; able to happen; capable of being done; not contrary to the nature of things; -- sometimes used to express extreme improbability; barely able to be, or to come to pass;
• VIRTUALLY
  In a virtual manner; in efficacy or effect only, and not actually; to all intents and purposes; practically.
• VIRTUALITY
  1. The quality or state of being virtual. 2. Potentiality; efficacy; potential existence. In one grain of corn, there lieth dormant a virtuality of many other. Sir T. Browne.
• IMMANENT
  Remaining within; inherent; indwelling; abiding; intrinsic; internal or subjective; hence, limited in activity, agency, or effect, to the subject or associated acts; -- opposed to emanant, transitory, transitive, or objective. A cognition is an
• EQUIPOTENTIAL
  Having the same potential. Equipotential surface, a surface for which the potential is for all points of the surface constant. Level surfaces on the earth are equipotential.
• COMPOSSIBLE
  Able to exist with another thing; consistent. Chillingworth.
• SIMPLICITY
  1. The quality or state of being simple, unmixed, or uncompounded; as, the simplicity of metals or of earths. 2. The quality or state of being not complex, or of consisting of few parts; as, the simplicity of a machine. 3. Artlessness of mind;
• UNSIMPLICITY
  Absence of simplicity; artfulness. C. Kingsley.
• INCOMPOSSIBLE
  Not capable of joint existence; incompatible; inconsistent. Ambition and faith . . . are . . . incompossible. Jer. Taylor. -- In`com*pos`si*bil"i*ty, n.
• JEFFERSONIAN SIMPLICITY
  The absence of pomp or display which Jefferson aimed at in his administration as President , eschewing display or ceremony tending to distinguish the President from the people, as in going to the capital on horseback and with no escort,
• UNPOSSIBLE
  Impossible.
• IMPOSSIBLE
  Not possible; incapable of being done, of existing, etc.; unattainable in the nature of things, or by means at command; insuperably difficult under the circumstances; absurd or impracticable; not feasible. With men this is impossible; but with God