funicular

Meanings

Adjective

• Of, pertaining to, resembling, or powered by a rope or cable
• Of or pertaining to the umbilical cord.
• Having a fleshy covering of the seed formed from the funiculus, the attachment point of the seed.

Noun

• A particular type of rail transit system which ascends a steep urban or mountain incline, having usually two cars sharing a single track, with the cars linked by a moving cable and an arrangement of pulleys such that the descending car assists in the hoisting of the ascending car, i.e. the two cars serve as counterweights for each other.

Origin

• From Latin fūniculus ("cord"), diminutive from fūnis + -culus.