linear

lineal, linear share the basic meaning of or relating to a line or lines, but they are clearly distinguished in their specific senses.

Lineal is more often applied to a direct line of succession from or to a common ancestor either physical or spiritual, and is often distinguished from collateral; thus, the lineal descendants of a man would include all his sons and daughters, all his grandsons and grand-daughters, all his great-grandsons and great-granddaughters, etc.

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George Washington had no lineal kinsmen to inherit his property, for he had no children

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these men, the lineal descendants of the mystics, found the source of certainty in inner experience, in feeling and instinct— Thilly

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Linear tends to lay the stress on a relation to a line other than a line of succession, either in fact or in likeness; often it suggests a relation to something having or felt as having one dimension only, usually length, especially in contrast to what has two or more dimensions

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linear measures such as the inch, foot, yard, and rod are used in measuring lengths (as of cloth, rope, poles, wire, and edges or bounds)

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from the linear dimensions of a room we can compute the square feet of floor to be covered

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a conductor of electricity (as a wire) which is very small or negligible in two of its dimensions, is called a linear conductor

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atoms which are so small that it takes one hundred millions of them lying side by side to extend one linear inch— Darrow

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the longest linear structural features on the earth's surface are the east-west fracture zones of the northeast Pacific Ocean— Malahoff, Strange & Wollard

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