homothety

This term is used almost exclusively within the specialized fields of geometry and linear algebra. It describes a specific type of similarity transformation where a figure is enlarged or shrunk while remaining centered on a fixed point, ensuring that the resulting image is homothetic to the original.

In a pedagogical or professional mathematical context, it is often used interchangeably with the term dilation. However, homothety specifically emphasizes the preservation of parallelism between corresponding lines in the original and transformed figures.