noun
- any thin, flat, circular plate or object.
- any surface that is flat and round, or seemingly so: the disk of the sun.
- disc(def 1).
- Computers. any of several types of media consisting of thin, round plates of plastic or metal, used for external storage: magnetic disk; floppy disk; optical disk.
- Botany, Zoology. any of various roundish, flat structures or parts.
- intervertebral disk.
- Botany. (in the daisy and other composite plants) the central portion of the flower head, composed of tubular florets.
- any of the circular steel blades that form the working part of a disk harrow.
- Mathematics. the domain bounded by a circle.
- Archaic. discus.
verb (used with object)
- Informal. disc(def 3).
- to cultivate (soil) with a disk harrow.
noun
- a phonograph record.
- disk(defs 1, 2, 4–9).
verb (used with object)
- Informal. to make (a recording) on a phonograph disc.
- disk(defs 11, 12).
noun
- a variant spelling (esp US and Canadian) of disc
- Also called: magnetic disk, hard disk computing a direct-access storage device consisting of a stack of plates coated with a magnetic layer, the whole assembly rotating rapidly as a single unit. Each surface has a read-write head that can move radially to read or write data on concentric tracksCompare drum 1 (def. 9) See also floppy disk
noun
- a flat circular plate
- something resembling or appearing to resemble thisthe sun’s disc
- another word for (gramophone) record
- anatomy any approximately circular flat structure in the body, esp an intervertebral disc
-
- the flat receptacle of composite flowers, such as the daisy
- (as modifier)a disc floret
- the middle part of the lip of an orchid
-
- Also called: parking disca marker or device for display in a parked vehicle showing the time of arrival or the latest permitted time of departure or both
- (as modifier)a disc zone; disc parking
- computing a variant spelling of disk (def. 2)
verb
- to work (land) with a disc harrow
American English preferred spelling, 1660s, “round flat surface,” from Latin discus “quoit, discus, disk,” from Greek diskos, from dikein “throw,” from PIE *dik-skos-, from root *deik- “to show, pronounce solemnly; also in derivatives referring to the directing of words or objects” [Watkins].
Sense of “phonograph disk” is 1888; computing sense is from 1947. Disk jockey first recorded 1941; dee-jay is from 1955; DJ is 1961; video version veejay is 1982. Disk-drive is from 1952.
Latinate spelling preferred in British English for most uses of disk (q.v.). American English tends to use it in the musical recording sense; originally of phonograph records, recently of compact discs. Hence, discophile “enthusiast for gramophone recordings” (1940).
n.
- A thin, flat, circular object or plate.
- lamella
n.
- Variant ofdisk
- A discus.
-
- See magnetic disk.
- See optical disk.
- See intervertebral disk.
- The round, flat center, consisting of many disk flowers, found in the inflorescences of many composite plants such as the daisy.