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# precession

«precession» in Mova's school dictionary: **The slow turning of the axis of a spinning object, such…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (precession, uncountable)

### meaning for a pupil

1) (science) The slow turning of the axis of a spinning object, such as a spinning top or the Earth, so that the axis traces a circle. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/precession/#m1)

2) (science) The slow change in the direction of Earth's axis, taking about 26,000 years for one circle. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/precession/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In science lessons, a spinning top wobbles in a circle: that is precession. Earth's axis also precesses slowly, so the North Star changes over thousands of years.

### examples

- A spinning top shows precession when it wobbles. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/precession/#x1)
- Because of precession, Polaris will not always be the North Star. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/precession/#x2)
- Precession of the Earth's axis takes about 26,000 years. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/precession/#x3)
- The gyroscope's precession was slow. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/precession/#x4)
- Scientists measure precession with telescopes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/precession/#x5)
- Precession changes which stars we see at the pole. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/precession/#x6)

### note

Not «procession» (a line of people walking). Verb: precess.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «precession» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/precession/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.