: either of the two parallels of terrestrial latitude at a distance of about 23¹/₂ degrees north or south of the equator where the sun is directly overhead when it reaches its most northerly or southerly point in the sky compare tropic of cancer, tropic of capricorn
2
tropics or Tropics plural: the region lying between the tropics
: turning, changing, or tending to turn or change in a (specified) manner or in response to a (specified) stimulus
geotropic
2
: attracted to or acting upon (something specified)
neurotropic
Example Sentences
Noun a vacation in the tropics
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English tropik, borrowed from Middle French & Late Latin; Middle French tropike, tropique, borrowed from Late Latin tropicus (short for tropicus circulus), noun derivative of Latin tropicus "of a solstice or equinox," borrowed from Greek tropikós, from tropḗ "turn, change, solstitial point" (noun derivative from the base of trépein "to turn") + -ikos-ic entry 1 — more at trope
Adjective (1)
borrowed from Middle French & Latin; Middle French tropike, tropique "of the sun's change of direction at the solstice, of either of the two tropics," borrowed from Latin tropicus "of a solstice or equinox" — more at tropic entry 1