Sine, in mathematics, is a trigonometric function of an angle. The sine of an angle is defined in the context of a right triangle: for the specified angle, it is the ratio of the length of the side that is opposite that angle (that is not the hypotenuse) to the length of the longest side of the triangle (i.e., the hypotenuse).
Trigonometric functions are commonly defined as ratios of two sides of a right triangle containing the angle, and can equivalently be defined as the lengths of various line segments from a unit circle. More modern definitions express them as infinite series or as solutions of certain differential equations, allowing their extension to arbitrary positive and negative values and even to complex numbers.