parallel

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• adjective Being an equal distance apart everywhere.
• adjective Of, relating to, or designating two or more straight coplanar lines that do not intersect.
• adjective Of, relating to, or designating two or more planes that do not intersect.
• adjective Of, relating to, or designating a line and a plane that do not intersect.
• adjective Of, relating to, or designating curves or surfaces everywhere equidistant.
• adjective Having comparable parts, analogous aspects, or readily recognized similarities.
• adjective Having the same tendency or direction.
• adjective Grammar Having identical or equivalent syntactic constructions in corresponding clauses or phrases.
• adjective Moving in the same direction at a fixed interval.
• adjective Having the same tonic. Used of scales and keys.
• adjective Electronics Denoting a circuit or part of a circuit connected in parallel.
• adjective Of or relating to the simultaneous transmission of all the bits of a byte over separate wires.
• adjective Of or relating to the simultaneous performance of multiple operations.
• adverb In a parallel relationship or manner.
• noun Mathematics One of a set of parallel geometric figures, such as lines or planes.
• noun One that closely resembles or is analogous to another.
• noun A comparison indicating likeness; an analogy.
• noun The condition of being parallel; near similarity or exact agreement in particulars; parallelism.
• noun Any of the imaginary lines representing degrees of latitude that encircle the earth parallel to the plane of the equator.
• noun Printing A sign indicating material referred to in a note or reference.
• noun Electronics An arrangement of components in a circuit that splits the current into two or more paths. Used chiefly in the phrase in parallel.
• transitive verb To make or place parallel to something else.
• transitive verb To be or extend parallel to.
• transitive verb To be similar or analogous to.
• transitive verb To be or provide an equal for; match.
• transitive verb To show to be analogous; compare or liken.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To place in a position parallel to something else; make parallel.
• To make conformable to something else; make the same or closely similar in many or all essential particulars.
• To match; equal; rival.
• To show or furnish an equal to, or an equivalent for.
• To compare.
• To take a course parallel with.
• To be like or equal; agree.
• In archery, having the same diameter throughout its length; cylindrical: said of an arrow.
• noun In electricity, the connection of two or more electric circuits or pieces of apparatus such that the current divides between them, that is, that they receive or produce the same voltage but different currents. Also called multiple.
• In geometry, of lines (according to Euclid in his definition of parallel straight lines), lying in the same plane but never meeting however far they may be produced in either direction; of planes, never meeting however far they may be produced; in modern geometry, intersecting at infinity.
• Having the same direction, tendency, or course.
• Continuing a resemblance through many particulars; like; similar; equal in all essential parts: as, a parallel case; parallel passages in the Evangelists.
• In music: Of two voice-parts, progressing so that the interval between them remains the same.
• Of tonalities, same as relative.
• In entorn., parallel-sided: as, parallel elytra,wings, etc.
• Milit., same as parallels. See II., 5.
• In music. See motion.
• noun A line parallel to another line.
• noun The intersection of a sphere by a plane perpendicular to its axis: such intersections of the terrestrial sphere are parallels of latitude, and are commonly represented on maps by lines drawn to every five or ten degrees (or less distances) between the equator and the poles. See latitude, 4.