Ordenades

Ordenades (singular ordenada) is the Catalan term for the ordinate in a Cartesian coordinate system. It denotes the second component of a point’s coordinates and corresponds to position along the vertical axis (the y-axis). In Catalan mathematics, each point on a plane is described by an ordered pair: the abscissa (x-coordinate) and the ordenada (y-coordinate).

For a point (x, y), the ordenada is the value y. The plural ordenades refers to the set of all y-values for a collection of points, a curve, or a function’s graph. In graphs and analytic geometry, ordenades provide the vertical measurements of points as x varies along the horizontal axis. In three-dimensional space, a point has three coordinates (x, y, z); the ordenada remains the y-component of the point.

Notational practice varies by language. In Catalan texts, you may encounter (x, y) with y described as the ordenada. The concept is equivalent to the English term “ordinate,” used to describe the vertical coordinate in the Cartesian plane.

See also: Cartesian coordinate system, abscissa, ordinate.