sphere

Multiple Entries:
  sphere    -sphere  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
sphere/sfɪə(r)/

▶noun

• 1 a round solid figure, with every point on its surface equidistant from its centre.

• 2 each of a series of revolving concentrically arranged spherical shells in which celestial bodies were formerly thought to be set in a fixed relationship.

  ■ chiefly literary a celestial body.

  ■ literary the sky perceived as a vault upon or in which celestial bodies are represented as lying.

  ■ a globe representing the earth.

• 3 an area of activity, interest, or expertise.

▶verb archaic enclose in or form into a sphere.

– phrases
music (or harmony) of the spheres the natural harmonic tones supposedly produced by the movement of the celestial spheres or the bodies fixed in them.

– derivatives
spheral adjective (archaic).

– origin ME: from OFr. espere, from late L. sphera, from Gk sphaira ‘ball’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
-sphere/sfɪə/

▶combining form denoting a structure or region of spherical form, especially a region round the earth: ionosphere.