The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word PARABOLA
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
P
A
R
A
B
O
L
A
More clues leading to the result PARABOLA
- Curved path soldier left, snake around it
- Section Semite coming into old Italian province
- A pitch then a strike turning in curve
- Arc a highball back supports soldier
- Soldier retraced a launch’s curve
- Curve in a tennis shot coming up after one following service?
- Curve ball from Spain undermines good round by amateur
- Norm has a short missile for this trajectory
- Shape of curve described by Moor in almost Arctic environment
- A high shot, one hit on the turn, might describe this
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Section" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case section = parabola.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does PARABOLA mean?
PARABOLA noun- The conic section formed by the intersection of a cone with a plane parallel to a tangent plane to the cone; the locus of points equidistant from a fixed point (the focus) and line (the directrix).
- The explicit drawing of a parallel between two essentially dissimilar things, especially with a moral or didactic purpose. A parable.