one of the fixed reference lines on a graph or in a coordinate system used to measure or locate points
On this chart, the horizontal axis shows years and the vertical axis shows population.
Plot the point where the two axes cross at the origin.
✦ Sense developed in mathematics in the 17th century from the idea of a pivot or central line.
an imaginary or real straight line through the center of a body or object, around which it turns or is evenly balanced
The Earth spins on its axis, creating day and night.
He drew a line through the center of the bicycle wheel to show its axis.
✦ From Latin axis “axle, pivot, pole of the sky.”
the alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan that fought against the Allies in World War II
Germany, Italy, and Japan formed the Axis in the late 1930s.
The Allies eventually defeated the Axis in 1945.
✦ Coined in the 1930s after Mussolini described Rome and Berlin as the "axis" around which Europe would revolve.
