From "[A.D. Alexandrov spaces with curvature bounded below][1]", Burago, Y. and Gromov, M. and Perel'man, G., _Russian Mathematical Surveys_, 47, 1992, p.5: > A locally complete space $Μ$ with intrinsic metric is called a _space with curvature $\ge k$_ if in some neighbourhood $U_x$ of each point $x \in M$ the following condition is satisfied: (D) for any four (distinct) points $(a, b, c, d)$ in $U_x$ we have the inequality $\tilde \angle bac + \tilde \angle bad + \tilde \angle cad \le 2\pi$. If the space $Μ$ is a one-dimensional manifold and $k > 0$, then we require in addition that diam $M$ does not exceed $\pi/\sqrt{k}$. (Here $\tilde \angle pqr$ is the angle at the vertex $\tilde q$ of the triangle $\tilde \triangle pqr$ on the two-dimensional "$k$-plane" of curvature $k$, which has side lengths $|pq|$, $|qr|$, $|rq|$.) They say in the _Introduction_, p.1, > We are talking, roughly speaking, about spaces with an intrinsic metric, for which the conclusion of Toponogov's angle comparison theorem is true (although only in the small). [1]: http://iopscience.iop.org/0036-0279/47/2/R01;jsessionid=D6F567EBB64F297A7AAD9AC0AF206739.c1