longitudinal vs transverse

longitudinal

adj
  • Forward and/or backward, relative to some defined direction. 

  • Relating to length, or to longitude. 

  • Running in the direction of the long axis of a body. 

  • Sampling data over time rather than merely once. 

noun
  • Any longitudinal piece, as in shipbuilding etc. 

  • A railway sleeper lying parallel with the rail. 

transverse

adj
  • Situated or lying across; side to side, relative to some defined "forward" direction; perpendicular or slanted relative to the "forward" direction; identified with movement across areas. 

  • (of an intersection) Not tangent, so that a nondegenerate angle is formed between the two things intersecting. 

  • Made at right angles to the long axis of the body. 

noun
  • Anything that is transverse or athwart. 

  • The longer, or transverse, axis of an ellipse. 

verb
  • To alter or transform. 

  • To lie or run across; to cross. 

  • To overturn. 

  • To traverse or thwart. 

How often have the words longitudinal and transverse occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )