WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025
great′-cir′cle sail′ing
(grāt′sûr′kəl),USA pronunciation [Navig.]
- Nautical, Naval Termssailing between two points more or less according to an arc of a great circle, in practice almost always using a series of rhumb lines of different bearings to approximate the arc, whose own bearing changes constantly unless it coincides with a meridian or the equator.