English

Noun

trajectory ‎(plural trajectories)

1. (astronomy, space science) The path of a body as it travels through space.
2. (cybernetics) The ordered set of intermediate states assumed by a dynamical system as a result of time evolution.
3. Metaphorically, a course of development, such as that of a war or career.
   • 2013 March 1, Harold J. Morowitz, “The Smallest Cell”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, page 83:

     It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.

Derived terms

• (astronomy, space): flyby trajectory

Related terms

• (cybernetics): run

Translations