käyriä

Käyriä is the plural nominative form of the Finnish noun käyrä, which means a curve or bend. It is used to talk about curved lines, shapes, or paths in mathematics, drawing, architecture, and everyday language. The singular form is käyrä, and in Finnish the same form käyriä can serve as nominative plural or partitive plural depending on the sentence.

Finnish etymology: The word is native to Finnish and related Finnic languages; its exact historical origin is not clearly established in contemporary sources.

In mathematics and geometry, a curve is a one-dimensional set of points forming a continuous line in the plane or space. Curves can be defined by equations y = f(x), by parametric forms, or as loci of points satisfying constraints. A straight line is considered a special case of a curve. Curves are classified by properties such as smoothness, curvature, and whether they lie in a plane or space. Common families include lines, circles, parabolas, ellipses, and more complex forms used in computer graphics and design, such as Bezier and spline curves.

Usage in Finnish: Käyriä describes curved lines and contours in art, design, road descriptions (a road curve is käyrä in everyday speech), and technical drawings. In graphic design and CAD, specific terms like käyräviiva (curved line) and Bezier-käyrä are common.