Parabola
![Part of a parabola (blue), with various features (other colours). The complete parabola has no endpoints. In this orientation, it extends infinitely to the left, right, and upward.](/Images/godic/202502/01/Parts_of_Parabola.svg0202.png")
![Parabolic compass designed by Leonardo da Vinci](/Images/godic/202502/01/Leonardo_parabolic_compass0202.JPG")
![Cone with cross-sections (To enlarge, click on diagram. To shrink, go to previous page.)](/Images/godic/202502/01/Parabolic_conic_section.svg0202.png")
![A parabolic segment can be constructed exactly from a quadratic Bézier curve: tangents to the parabola at the curve's end points intersect at its control point](/Images/godic/202502/01/Relationship_between_parabola_and_quadratic_Bezier.svg0202.png")
A parabola (/pəˈræbələ/; plural parabolas or parabolae, adjective parabolic, from Greek:παραβολή) is a two-dimensional, mirror-symmetrical curve, which is approximately U-shaped when oriented as shown in the diagram below, but which can be in any orientation in its plane. It fits any of several superficially different mathematical descriptions which can all be proved to define curves of exactly the same shape.