ˌgravəˈtāshən noun
( -s )
Etymology: New Latin gravitation-, gravitatio, from gravitatus + Latin -ion-, -io -ion
1. : an action or a process of gravitating
delivery of irrigation water under gravitation
2. : a tendency toward or state of being drawn to something
universal gravitation to quantitative, statistical, numerical description — Hugh Miller b. 1891
3. : a force manifested by acceleration toward each other of two free material particles or bodies or of radiant-energy quanta as if they were particles (as in the bending of rays of starlight passing close to the sun), these effects being attributed in relativity theory to the physical property of space according to which moving bodies follow minimum space-time tracks that are sensibly concave toward nearby massive bodies and that apparently constrain the motions of smaller bodies encompassed by them : an attraction between two bodies that is proportional to the product of their masses, inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them, and independent of their chemical nature or physical state and of intervening matter