# Vertical, Horizontal, and...? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 13, 2003, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936 "2003-08-13T16:29:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shawnbbrad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@Shawnbbrad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shawnbbrad)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936/21 "2011-12-09T02:30:45Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > Where would you use such a word? Uh… in the making of…furniture, oh Patty(?). Where, really? Seriously. The OP said three-dimensional objects, and I’m pretty sure that since Homo Habilus, we’ve been making three-dimensional objects. 🙂 In architecture – and especially in my coordination with my carpenters and craftspeople, we need to talk about this, sensibly and with clarity, literally every day. We use the terms height, width, and depth. Everybody who works with real objects and people on a job site in my area of the U.S. uses these terms, (when speaking English). Mucking about with longitudinal this and transverse that gets you nowhere – the architects may understand it but nobody else does. What computer-graphics people dealing with virtual objects – pixels with no real relationship to an actual, universal ground plane – do, I couldn’t say. But actual 3-D objects have a relationship to a ground plane, and when you have a ground plane (i.e., the real ground), you automatically orient to it; thus things rising normal to that plane are measured in ‘height’. Things in a plane perpendicular to ground obliquely in front of the viewer are rotated to and measured in ‘width’. Things then approaching or receding from the viewer you reference with the metric ‘depth’. I’ve never found another set of terms that everybody understands. Generally, I would guess, because with other terms that float around in the industry (like ‘elevation’, and ‘section’) you have to assume a reference plane, and then assume that everybody else is assuming that reference plane. Which leads to trouble. Because they don’t. The one constant that everyone understands, from top to bottom, is: Where is the ground? You can take the house away, or this piece of furniture, or that wall…but you can’t take the ground (totally) away. Try as Cargill might. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936/22 "2011-12-09T02:33:47Z")
Zeldar called it back in the second post. It’s depth. The term is already being used in 3D technology. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936/23 "2011-12-09T02:48:14Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Zeldar called it back in the second post. It’s depth. The term is already being used in 3D technology. Its been called depth or z axis in every computer program that can create 3D images for at least 25 years. But yeah there’s not really a word equivalent to horizontal as in “a horizontal line”. You’d have to say “A line along the depth axis”. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936/24 "2011-12-09T03:10:02Z")
inazontal works for me. ---
**Author:** ![vertizontal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ad7895/32.png) [@vertizontal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vertizontal)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936/25 "2011-12-09T05:35:45Z")
vertizontal ---
**Author:** ![Walther\_Ego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@Walther\_Ego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walther_Ego)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936/26 "2011-12-09T07:55:45Z")
In my line of work, it is longitudinal, transverse, vertical. Whenever I use “horizontal”, I use it specifically to describe both longitudinal and transverse. E.g. horizontal acceleration pushes you either left, right, forward or backward, synonymous to lateral. I guess this is the ship point of view, the horizon is all around and limits a plane from four sides, forming two dimensions. Those poor creatures who are tied to land see the horizon as a line, limiting the plane from one side only and thus as only one dimension. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936/27 "2011-12-09T09:47:40Z")
You could try to borrow sagittal from anatomy. It’s specific (and relative) to the body, but a line in the sagittal plane is front to back. Anatomy uses “transverse” for any plane that cuts the top from the bottom in a standing human - “horizontal”. “Coronal” cuts into front and back (from the crown of the head and the suture in the skull along it) - “vertical”. “Sagittal” cuts into left and right (from the _sagitta_ which is another suture in the skull along this line). Note that all of these are always fixed in and relative to the body, which makes them not quite fit with horizontal and vertical as normally figured. The transverse plane of a person lying down is not pointing the same direction as when they’re standing. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936/28 "2011-12-09T19:09:42Z")
> [@vertizontal](#): > > vertizontal Waited seven years for this very moment, did you? And then, such admirable restraint. ---
**Author:** ![vertizontal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ad7895/32.png) [@vertizontal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vertizontal)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936/29 "2011-12-09T19:50:30Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > Waited seven years for this very moment, did you? And then, such admirable restraint. It was worth the wait, I tell ya. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936/30 "2011-12-09T19:54:38Z")
The ol’ in-out? ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936/31 "2011-12-09T21:33:49Z")
I like “sagital”, but I thought of dorsal and ventral before I read the whole thread. ---
**Author:** ![Corresponder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/22d042/32.png) [@Corresponder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corresponder)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936/32 "2011-12-10T01:06:29Z")
The word might be “radial”, in the sense that when we look toward something, there are vertical lines that we could imagine through it, as well as horizontal lines, and radial lines which go in the direction from us toward it. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936/33 "2011-12-10T02:52:24Z")
So far I like the word “distanal” best. I can’t do math at all and even I would understand what it represents. But then… "ooooooh, you said anal. " heh heh heh heh ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936/34 "2011-12-10T02:57:22Z")
Another vote for sagittal. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936/35 "2011-12-10T03:45:57Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Its been called depth or z axis in every computer program that can create 3D images for at least 25 years. But yeah there’s not really a word equivalent to horizontal as in “a horizontal line”. You’d have to say “A line along the depth axis”. The word is “deep”. Deep is the adjective equivalent of depth, just as horizontal is the adjective equivalent of horizon. ---
**Author:** ![Corresponder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/22d042/32.png) [@Corresponder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corresponder)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936/36 "2011-12-10T06:04:12Z")
> [@Corresponder](#): > > The word might be “radial”, in the sense that when we look toward something, there are vertical lines that we could imagine through it, as well as horizontal lines, and radial lines which go in the direction from us toward it. Or maybe pararadial, which is a word I just made up. ---
**Author:** ![Corresponder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/22d042/32.png) [@Corresponder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corresponder)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936/37 "2011-12-10T06:17:10Z")
“Sagittal” is fairly good, except, like “coronal” and “transverse,” it is used for a plane rather than a line, so it could refer to any line through the object which stays in a vertical plane, even if the line is not staying level in its distance from the ground. For instance, a vertical line through the object is in a sagittal plane. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936/38 "2011-12-10T06:26:46Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Lateral. That’s about as technical as it should get (longitudinal or even just forwards / backwards would work too), otherwise, depth (or z-depth, the the land of CGI where I hail from) is far more understood. > [@maksim](#): > > In case anyone in the future digs up this thread… I believe the correct term is “normal,” which is perpendicular to the plane you are facing or referring to. In CG, a normal is the rotational and directional orientation of a polygonal face in a 3-dimensional coordinate system(x, y, z). 90º from the normal would be perpendicular to this, but the normal isn’t necessarily horizontal or vertical to begin with. Again, at least in the CG world. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936/39 "2011-12-10T07:01:07Z")
… ---
**Author:** ![Corresponder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/22d042/32.png) [@Corresponder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corresponder)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936/40 "2011-12-10T07:28:41Z")
> [@maksim](#): > > In case anyone in the future digs up this thread… I believe the correct term is “normal,” which is perpendicular to the plane you are facing or referring to. I just discovered this reply, and I think “normal” is the best answer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertical-horizontal-and/194936.md?page=3)