Spherical means shaped like a perfect sphere: round in every direction, like a basketball or a soap bubble. A sphere is a three-dimensional shape where every point on the surface is exactly the same distance from the center.

Earth is nearly spherical, though it bulges slightly at the equator. Planets, stars, and moons tend to form spherical shapes because gravity pulls their mass equally in all directions. When you blow a bubble, it naturally becomes spherical because surface tension pulls the soap film into the most efficient shape possible.

In geometry class, you might calculate the volume of a spherical object or compare spherical shapes to cubes and pyramids.

People sometimes use spherical more loosely to mean “roughly round,” even if something isn't mathematically perfect. A snowball might be called spherical even though it has some bumps. Scientists and engineers, however, use the term precisely when perfect roundness matters, like when describing spherical lenses in telescopes or spherical tanks that hold liquids under pressure.