• n. 范圍；球體
• vt. 包圍；放入球內；使…成球形
• adj. 球體的

來自古法語 sphere,來自拉丁語 sphaera,球，球體，天體，來自希臘語 sphaira,球，球體。引申 詞義大氣層。

sphere

sphere: [17] Sphere goes back ultimately to Greek sphaira, a word of uncertain origin, which reached English via Latin sphaera or sphēra and Old French espere. Amongst the theories put forward to account for its ancestry are that it was derived from Greek sphurás ‘fall of dung, round pellet of dung, pill’, which has relatives in Lithuanian spira ‘sheep-dung’ and modern Icelandic sperthill ‘goat-dung’; and that it is related to Greek spaírein ‘quiver’ and Sanskrit sphur- ‘spring, quiver, trouble’. It metaphorical use in English for ‘area of activity’ dates from the early 17th century.

sphere (n.)

mid-15c., Latinized spelling of Middle English spere (c. 1300) "cosmos; space, conceived as a hollow globe about the world," from Anglo-French espiere, Old French espere (13c., Modern French sphère), from Latin sphaera "globe, ball, celestial sphere" (Medieval Latin spera), from Greek sphaira "globe, ball, playing ball, terrestrial globe," of unknown origin.

From late 14c. in reference to any of the supposed concentric, transparent, hollow, crystalline globes of the cosmos believed to revolve around the earth and contain the planets and the fixed stars; the supposed harmonious sound they made rubbing against one another was the music of the spheres (late 14c.). Also from late 14c. as "a globe; object of spherical form, a ball," and the geometric sense "solid figure with all points equidistant from the center." Meaning "range of something, place or scene of activity" is first recorded c. 1600 (as in sphere of influence, 1885, originally in reference to Anglo-German colonial rivalry in Africa).

1. This area was formerly within the sphere of influence of the US.

這一地區先前屬于美國的勢力范圍。

來自《權威詞典》

2. Some scientists relegate parapsychology to the sphere of quackery.

一些科學家把靈學歸類到騙術范圍.

來自《簡明英漢詞典》

3. The sculptor rounded the clay into a sphere.

那位雕塑家把黏土做成了一個球狀.

來自《簡明英漢詞典》

4. Biology is not my sphere.

生物學不是我研究的范圍.

來自《簡明英漢詞典》

5. The Earth is not a perfect sphere.

地球并不是一個完全的球體.

來自《簡明英漢詞典》