as in sampling
a number of things selected from a group to stand for the whole
a television ratings service that monitors the viewing of a representative cross section of the general population
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Recent Examples of cross section
In one of the shots, Swift sits underneath a street lamp with signs indicating the cross section of 16th Avenue and Cornelia Street — referencing a song on the album with the same name.
—
Colson Thayer, People.com, 26 Aug. 2025
There is nothing the world loves to put on a pedestal more than a beautiful white mother who inhabits the cross section of feminine beauty and maternal warmth, and who demonstrates ease at inhabiting all the roles society asks her to fill.
—Angelica Jade Bastién, Vulture, 15 Aug. 2025
It’s served sliced in half, revealing a cross section of pink interior featuring interwoven striations of marinated pork and smoked eel, whose flavors merge into an ambient meatiness.
—Helen Rosner, New Yorker, 27 July 2025
The teeth at the front of the dinosaur’s jaw, however, are D-shaped in cross section, with the curve of the D facing out toward the lip and a flat side facing the interior of the mouth.
—Riley Black, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for cross section
Colson Thayer, People.com, 26 Aug. 2025
There is nothing the world loves to put on a pedestal more than a beautiful white mother who inhabits the cross section of feminine beauty and maternal warmth, and who demonstrates ease at inhabiting all the roles society asks her to fill.
—Angelica Jade Bastién, Vulture, 15 Aug. 2025
It’s served sliced in half, revealing a cross section of pink interior featuring interwoven striations of marinated pork and smoked eel, whose flavors merge into an ambient meatiness.
—Helen Rosner, New Yorker, 27 July 2025
The teeth at the front of the dinosaur’s jaw, however, are D-shaped in cross section, with the curve of the D facing out toward the lip and a flat side facing the interior of the mouth.
—Riley Black, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for cross section
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cross section
Noun
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There will be hands-on training to conduct water quality testing and macro-invertebrate sampling.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
21 Oct. 2025
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One problem with the Google team’s claims of a quantum advantage over regular computers has been their use of a benchmark called random circuit sampling.—
IEEE Spectrum,
IEEE Spectrum,
21 Oct. 2025
Noun
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In total, the researchers analyzed 357 contemporary mosquitoes and 22 historical specimens, and used additional mosquito samples from a separate study, which beefed up the overall count to about 800.—
Jacopo Prisco,
CNN Money,
24 Oct. 2025
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Using data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), a national database that collects emergency department injury data from a representative sample of about 100 American hospitals, the researchers applied statistical weighting to estimate national injury rates.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
24 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Cross section.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cross%20section. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
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