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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)

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.
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Gentlemen of more than ordinary dimensions. --W.
Irving.
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{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.
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2. Extent; reach; scope; importance; as, a project of large
dimensions.
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3. (Math.) The degree of manifoldness of a quantity; as, time
is quantity having one dimension; volume has three
dimensions, relative to extension.
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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.
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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}.

{Dimensional lumber}, {Dimension lumber}, {Dimension
scantling}, or {Dimension stock} (Carp.), lumber for
building, etc., cut to the sizes usually in demand, or to
special sizes as ordered.

{Dimension stone}, stone delivered from the quarry rough, but
brought to such sizes as are requisite for cutting to
dimensions given.
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