Anisotropic

Anisotropic (meaning non-isotropic) is usually used to describe a directionally dependent phenomenon.

For example, anisotropic radiation has different intensities in different directions, and an anisotropic field exerts different actions depending on how the test particle is oriented. Magnetic susceptibility or electrical conductivity, for example, can be anisotropic in certain materials, as is the cosmic microwave background radiation. Wood is an anisotropic material as its strength and expansion due to humidity are different in the longitudinal, radial, and tangential directions. See also anisotropic etch, and liquid crystal.

This term is also used in the field of computer graphics. For example, an anisotropic surface will change in appearance as it is rotated about its normal, as is the case with velvet. Anisotropic scaling occurs when something is scaled by different amounts in different directions, for example, stretching a 64×64-pixel texture to cover a 12×34-pixel rectangle.