arcs [ahrks]

noun, plural of arc

[Middle English ark, from Old French arc, from Latin arcus.]

1. anything bow-shaped. a curve. something arched or curved. a curved path. a continuous progression or line of development.
2. Architecture.
   • another term for arch, a bowed or curved structure capable of spanning a space while supporting significant weight (e.g. a doorway in a stone wall), or a free-standing structure, such as a triumphal arch.
3. Astronomy.
   • the part of a circle representing the apparent path described above and below the horizon by a celestial heavenly body.
4. Computing.
   • a connection between two network nodes.
   • an edge in a tree (a tree is a data structure in computer programs).
5. Electricity & Engineering.
   • a luminous bridge formed in a gap between two electrodes.
   • an electrical conduction through a gas in an applied electric field.
   • arc lamp, a device that produces light by an electric arc.
   • electric arc or voltaic arc, an ongoing plasma discharge (an electric current through a gas), producing light and heat.
6. Geology.
   • volcanic arc or island arc, a chain of volcanic mountains or islands formed by plate tectonics.
7. Geometry.
   • any unbroken part of the circumference of a circle or other curved line; a continuous portion of a circle.
   • a degree measurement on the circumference of a circle.
   • a segment of a differentiable curve.
   • in projective geometry, a particular type of set of points of a projective plane.
8. Graph Theory.
   • a directed edge of a graph.
9. Internet.
   • A crosslink between two websites.
10. Literature.
    • story arc, an extended or continuing storyline.
11. Methematics.
    • a segment of a circle.
    • a degree measurement on the circumference of a circle.
    • a continuous mapping from the real interval.
    • an ordered string of vertices (x,y coordinate pairs) that begin at one location and end at another. connecting the arc's vertices creates a line. the vertices at each endpoint of an arc are called nodes.
12. Transportation Systems.
    • in a multimodal network, a travel arc is a connection of two nodes in the same mode, while a transfer arc is a representation of transfer between two nodes in different modes.

Sources: dictionary.com; wikipedia.org; merriam-webster.com