Learn English – Terminology for diagonal line that also indicates orientation

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Suppose a grid of items, as you would have in a game. In this grid there are four types of lines of items:

  1. Horizontal Lines
  2. Vertical Lines
  3. Diagonal Lines oriented under 45 degrees
  4. Diagonal Lines oriented under minus 45 degrees

Note that such a line has no particular direction, they can be seen going either way.

The problem is that when writing material that has to be precise (such as code), the terms as above for types 3 and 4 become rather long (when succinct terminology is actually preferred).

Is there a "specialized" term that means "Diagonal" but also indicates orientation?

I've racked my brain to get an answer myself. There's not really a way to incorporate "Clockwise" and "CounterClockwise" to fix things. The terms from cardinal directions are too specialized as they also indicate a direction (e.g. "North-East Lines" suggests there's also "South-West Lines" but those are actually the same thing).

Best Answer

Ascending and descending, are words for lines with positive and negative slope respectively. You can use them in the same context as the adjectives horizontal and vertical.

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