Standard Lemma guide

theodolite

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /θiːˈɒdəlaɪt/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A surveying instrument, consisting of a small mounted telescope, used to measure horizontal and vertical angles.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a surveying instrument for measuring horizontal and vertical angles, consisting of a small telescope mounted on a tripod

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: transit

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: surveying instrument, surveyor's instrument

Narrower terms: tachymeter, tacheometer

History

Etymology

From New Latin theodolitus (1571), perhaps containing Ancient Greek θέᾱ (théā, “sight, view”) and Arabic العِضَادَة (al-ʕiḍāda, “astrolabe, alidade”); if so, doublet of alidade.

Across languages

Translations

58 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: teodolit — instrument
  • Asturian: teodolito — instrument
  • Azerbaijani: teodolit — instrument
  • Basque: teodolito — instrument
  • Belarusian: тэадалі́т (teadalít) — instrument
  • Bulgarian: теодоли́т (teodolít) — instrument
  • Burmese: သီအိုဒိုလိုက် (siuiduiluik) — instrument
  • Catalan: teodolit — instrument
  • Chinese Mandarin: 經緯儀 /经纬仪 (jīngwěiyí) — instrument
  • Czech: teodolit — instrument
  • Danish: teodolit — instrument
  • Dutch: theodoliet — instrument
  • Esperanto: teodolito — instrument
  • Estonian: teodoliit — instrument
  • Farefare: teodolito — instrument
  • Finnish: teodoliitti — instrument
  • French: théodolite — instrument
  • Georgian: თეოდოლიტი (teodoliṭi) — instrument
  • German: Theodolit — instrument
  • Greek: θεοδόλιχος (theodólichos) — instrument
  • Hebrew: תֵּאוֹדוֹלִיט (teodolit) — instrument
  • Hindi: थियोडोलाइट (thiyoḍolāiṭ) — instrument
  • Hindi: थिओडोलाइट (thioḍolāiṭ) — instrument
  • Hungarian: teodolit — instrument
  • Hungarian: szögmérő — instrument
  • Ido: teodolito — instrument
  • Indonesian: teodolit — instrument
  • Irish: teodailít — instrument
  • Italian: teodolite — instrument
  • Japanese: セオドライト (seodoraito) — instrument
  • Korean: 세오돌라이트 (se'odollaiteu) — instrument
  • Korean: 경위의 (gyeong'wiui) — instrument
  • Kyrgyz: теодолит (teodolit) — instrument
  • Lithuanian: teodolitas — instrument
  • Macedonian: теодолит (teodolit) — instrument
  • Manx: uillin-towsheyder — instrument
  • Norwegian Bokmål: teodolitt — instrument
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: teodolitt — instrument
  • Odia: ଥିଓଡ଼ୋଲାଇଟ (thioṛolāiṭa) — instrument
  • Persian: تئودولیت (te'odolit) — instrument
  • Polish: teodolit — instrument
  • Portuguese: teodolito — instrument
  • Romanian: teodolit — instrument
  • Russian: теодоли́т (teodolít) — instrument
  • Scottish Gaelic: teodail — instrument
  • Serbo-Croatian: теодо̀лӣт — instrument
  • Serbo-Croatian: teodòlīt — instrument
  • Slovak: teodolit — instrument
  • Slovene: teodolit — instrument
  • Spanish: teodolito — instrument
  • Swedish: teodolit — instrument
  • Tamil: தியோடலைட்டு (tiyōṭalaiṭṭu) — instrument
  • Turkish: teodolit — instrument
  • Ottoman Turkish: آینه (ayna) — instrument
  • Ukrainian: теодолі́т (teodolít) — instrument
  • Uzbek: теодолит (teodolit) — instrument
  • Uzbek: teodolit — instrument
  • Vietnamese: máy kinh vĩ — instrument