metacenter

The point where an imaginary vertical line running through the center of buoyancy of a tilted floating body crosses the line that originally passed vertically through the body’s center of buoyancy when it was at equilibrium.

The point at which an upward thrust could be equivalent to the pressure of water upon a floating body which has received a slight rotational displacement about one of the principal axes of its section of flotation.

In biology, an organism or an organ which, while one of the descendants from an archetype, itself becomes a new archetype around which new divergent or apocentric modifications are produced.

The point of intersection of a vertical line through the center of gravity of the fluid displaced by a floating body which is tipped through a small angle from its position of equilibrium, and the inclined line which was vertical through the center of gravity of the body when in equilibrium.

A midway point between a ship’s centre of buoyancy when upright and its centre of buoyancy when tilted; it must be above the centre of gravity to enable a tilting ship to return to an upright position.

(shipbuilding) the point of intersection between two vertical lines, one line through the center of buoyancy of the hull of a ship in equilibrium and the other line through the center of buoyancy of the hull when the ship is inclined to one side; the distance of this intersection above the center of gravity is an indication of the stability of the ship