资料来源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Dimension \Di*men"sion\, n. [L. dimensio, fr. dimensus, p. p. of
   dimetiri to measure out; di- = dis- + metiri to measure: cf.
   F. dimension. See {Measure}.]
   1. Measure in a single line, as length, breadth, height,
      thickness, or circumference; extension; measurement; --
      usually, in the plural, measure in length and breadth, or
      in length, breadth, and thickness; extent; size; as, the
      dimensions of a room, or of a ship; the dimensions of a
      farm, of a kingdom.

            Gentlemen of more than ordinary dimensions. --W.
                                                  Irving.

   {Space of dimension}, extension that has length but no
      breadth or thickness; a straight or curved line.

   {Space of two dimensions}, extension which has length and
      breadth, but no thickness; a plane or curved surface.

   {Space of three dimensions}, extension which has length,
      breadth, and thickness; a solid.

   {Space of four dimensions}, as imaginary kind of extension,
      which is assumed to have length, breadth, thickness, and
      also a fourth imaginary dimension. Space of five or six,
      or more dimensions is also sometimes assumed in
      mathematics.

   2. Extent; reach; scope; importance; as, a project of large
      dimensions.

   3. (Math.) The degree of manifoldness of a quantity; as, time
      is quantity having one dimension; volume has three
      dimensions, relative to extension.

   4. (Alg.) A literal factor, as numbered in characterizing a
      term. The term dimensions forms with the cardinal numbers
      a phrase equivalent to degree with the ordinal; thus,
      a^{2}b^{2}c is a term of five dimensions, or of the fifth
      degree.

   5. pl. (Phys.) The manifoldness with which the fundamental
      units of time, length, and mass are involved in
      determining the units of other physical quantities.

   Note: Thus, since the unit of velocity varies directly as the
         unit of length and inversely as the unit of time, the
         dimensions of velocity are said to be length [divby]
         time; the dimensions of work are mass [times]
         (length)^{2} [divby] (time)^{2}; the dimensions of
         density are mass [divby] (length)^{3}.