Vertex definition |Dictionary.com

Browse Nearby Entries

vertebration's

vertex

Sponsored Links Vertex WebToolKit by DMA
Simplify Vertex updates and enhance exemption certificate abilities.
www.taxautomation.com

Vertex 2-Way Batteries
Weekly Fresh Shipments. No Old Batteries. Same Day Shipping!
www.DiscountTwo-WayRadio.com

Vertex Two Way Radios
Handhelds, Mobiles, Base, Repeaters Call 1-800-826-2907 Ext. 259 Today
www.psicompany.com/vertex-radio/

7 dictionary results for: Vertex

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

ver·tex

[vur-teks] Pronunciation Key

–noun, plural -tex·es, -ti·ces

[-tuh-seez] Pronunciation Key.

1.	the highest point of something; apex; summit; top: the vertex of a mountain.

2.	Anatomy, Zoology. the crown or top of the head.

3.	Craniometry. the highest point on the midsagittal plane of the skull or head viewed from the left side when the skull or head is in the Frankfurt horizontal.

4.	Astronomy. a point in the celestial sphere toward which or from which the common motion of a group of stars is directed.

Geometry.

a.	the point farthest from the base: the vertex of a cone or of a pyramid.

b.	a point in a geometrical solid common to three or more sides.

c.	the intersection of two sides of a plane figure.

[Origin: 1560–70; < L: a whirl, top (of the head), equiv. to vert(ere) to turn + -ex (s. -ic-) n. suffix

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

Sponsored Links Vertex WebToolKit by DMA
Simplify Vertex updates and enhance exemption certificate abilities.
www.taxautomation.com

Vertex 2-Way Batteries
Weekly Fresh Shipments. No Old Batteries. Same Day Shipping!
www.DiscountTwo-WayRadio.com

Vertex Two Way Radios
Handhelds, Mobiles, Base, Repeaters Call 1-800-826-2907 Ext. 259 Today
www.psicompany.com/vertex-radio/

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

ver·tex (vûr'těks') Pronunciation Key
n. pl. ver·ti·ces (-tĭ-sēz') also ver·tex·es

The highest point; the apex or summit: the vertex of a mountain.
Anatomy
1. The highest point of the skull.
2. The top of the head.
3. The point at which the sides of an angle intersect.
4. The point on a triangle or pyramid opposite to and farthest away from its base.
5. A point on a polyhedron common to three or more sides.
Astronomy The highest point reached in the apparent motion of a celestial body.
Mathematics
1. The point at which the sides of an angle intersect.
2. The point on a triangle or pyramid opposite to and farthest away from its base.
3. A point on a polyhedron common to three or more sides.

[Latin, whirlpool, crown of the head (where the hair forms a whorl), vertex, from vertere, to turn; see wer-² in Indo-European roots.]

(Download Now or Buy the Book)
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
vertex

1570, "the point opposite the base in geometry," from L. vertex "highest point," lit. "the turning point," originally "whirling column, whirlpool," from vertere "to turn" (see versus). Meaning "highest point of anything" is first attested 1641.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

vertex
noun
1.	the point of intersection of lines or the point opposite the base of a figure
2.	the highest point (of something); "at the peak of the pyramid"

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

vertex (vûr'těks') Pronunciation Key
Plural vertices (vûr'tĭ-sēz') or vertexes

The point at which the sides of an angle intersect.
The point of a triangle, cone, or pyramid that is opposite to and farthest away from its base.
A point of a polyhedron at which three or more of the edges intersect.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

vertex ver·tex (vûr'těks')
n. pl. ver·tex·es or ver·ti·ces (-tĭ-sēz')

The highest point; the apex.
The topmost point of the vault of the skull; the crown of the head.
The portion of the fetal head bounded by the planes of the trachelobregmatic and biparietal diameters, with the posterior fontanel at the apex.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Vertex

Ver"tex\, n.; pl. Vertexes, L. Vertices. [L. vertex, -icis, a whirl, top of the head, top, summit, from vertere to turn. See Verse, and cf. Vortex.] A turning point; the principal or highest point; top; summit; crown; apex. Specifically: (a) (Anat.) The top, or crown, of the head. (b) (Anat.) The zenith, or the point of the heavens directly overhead. (c) (Math.) The point in any figure opposite to, and farthest from, the base; the terminating point of some particular line or lines in a figure or a curve; the top, or the point opposite the base.

Note: The principal vertex of a conic section is, in the parabola, the vertex of the axis of the curve: in the ellipse, either extremity of either axis, but usually the left-hand vertex of the transverse axis; in the hyperbola, either vertex, but usually the right-hand vertex of the transverse axis.

Vertex of a curve (Math.), the point in which the axis of the curve intersects it.

Vertex of an angle (Math.), the point in which the sides of the angle meet.

Vertex of a solid, or of a surface of revolution (Math.), the point in which the axis pierces the surface.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT