style curve (stilkerv)

A curve constructed to exhibit the peculiarities of style or composition of an author. It may be drawn so that the absci æ represent the number of letters in a word, while the corresponding ordinates show the relative frequency of the occurrence of such words, or other characteristics may be selected. Experiments seem to prove that, when a sufficiently extensive analysis is made in this manner, every writer will be found to be represented by a curve peculiar to himself. Science, XIII. 92. stylet (stī'let), n. [ stylet , stiletto , pointed instrument, dagger, dim. of stilo , a pointed instrument: see stylel , and cf. stiletto .] slender pointed instrument; a stiletto. "Come, Paul!" she reiterated, her eye grazing me with its hard ray like a steel stylet. Charlotte Brontë, Villette, xli. 2. In surg., the perforator of a trocar; the stiffening wire or rod in a flexible catheter; sometimes, a probe. Also stilette.-3. In zoöl., a little style; also, a style; specifically, in entom., one of the second of the three pairs of rhabdites or appendages of the abdominal sternites entering into the formation of the ovipositor. See cut under Arctisca. form a, form.] Shaped like a stylet; styloid. style wort (stil'wert), n. A plant of the genus Candollea, formerly Stylidium; more broadly (Lindley), a plant of the order Candolleacea, formerly Stylideæ ( Stylidiaceæ ). Stylidieæ (sti-li-die-ē), n. pl. [NL. (Ju ieu, 1811), the style, and two-celled ovary with numerous ovules The order is closely related in habit to the Lobeliacea, which, however, are readily distinguished by the free style. It contains about 105 species, belonging to 5 genera, of which Stylidium is the type, mostly Australian herbs, a few in tropical Asia, New Zealand, and antarctic America. They are herbs or rarely somewhat shrubby plants with radical scattered or seemingly whorled leaves, which are entire and usually narrow or small. Their flowers form terminal racemes or panicles, usually primarily centripe tal in development and secondarily centrifugal. Also Sty lidiaceæ.