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(in plane Cartesian coordinates) the x-coordinate of a point: its distance from the y-axis measured parallel to the x-axis.
Historical Examples

Ordinate represents geo-electric excitation; abscissa, distance from upper surface of flower stalk.
Life Movements in Plants, Volume II, 1919 Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose

The abscissa of such a curve is the reading of the instrument to be corrected.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 1 Various

To provide for such cases the curve is drawn as if it never touched the abscissa.
Logic Carveth Read

A Thermo-crescent Curve is thus obtained, the ordinate of which represents increment of growth, and the abscissa, the time.
Life Movements in Plants Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose

The measured lengths are marked off on ordinates erected on an abscissa, along which the times are noted.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 Various

The ordinate of the curve represents the intensity of response, and the abscissa the time (fig. 1).
Response in the Living and Non-Living Jagadis Chunder Bose

Thus we find the curve at first slightly convex, then straight and ascending, and lastly, concave to the abscissa (fig. 30).
Response in the Living and Non-Living Jagadis Chunder Bose

The ordinate in these curves represents the E.M. variation, and the abscissa the time.
Response in the Living and Non-Living Jagadis Chunder Bose

Newton denoted the moment of the abscissa by o, that of the area z by ov.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 14, Slice 5 Various

The curve as a whole becomes, first slightly convex to the abscissa, then straight and ascending, and lastly concave.
Response in the Living and Non-Living Jagadis Chunder Bose

noun (pl) -scissas, -scissae (-ˈsɪsiː)
the horizontal or x-coordinate of a point in a two-dimensional system of Cartesian coordinates. It is the distance from the y-axis measured parallel to the x-axis Compare ordinate
n.

1690s, from Latin abscissa (linea) “(a line) cut off,” from fem. past participle of abscindere “to cut off,” from ab- “off, away” (see ab-) + scindere “to cut” (see shed (v.)).
abscissa
(āb-sĭs’ə)

Plural abscissas or abscissae (āb-sĭs’ē)
The distance of a point from the y-axis on a graph in the Cartesian coordinate system. It is measured parallel to the x-axis. For example, a point having coordinates (2,3) has 2 as its abscissa. Compare ordinate.

mathematics
The horizontal or x coordinate on an (x, y) graph; the input of a function against which the output is plotted.
The vertical or y coordinate is the “ordinate”.
See Cartesian coordinates.
(1997-07-08)