cone

[ kohn ]
See synonyms for: coneconed on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. Geometry.

    • a solid whose surface is generated by a line passing through a fixed point and a fixed plane curve not containing the point, consisting of two equal sections joined at a vertex.

    • a plane surface resembling the cross section of a solid cone.

  2. anything shaped like a cone: sawdust piled up in a great cone; the cone of a volcano.

  1. Botany.

    • the more or less conical multiple fruit of the pine, fir, etc., consisting of overlapping or valvate scales bearing naked ovules or seeds; a strobile.

    • a similar fruit, as in cycads or club mosses.

  2. Anatomy. one of the cone-shaped cells in the retina of the eye, sensitive to color and intensity of light.: Compare rod (def. 17).

  3. one of a series of cone-shaped markers placed along a road, as around an area of highway construction, especially to exclude or divert motor vehicles.

  4. (in a taper thread screw or bevel gear) an imaginary cone or frustum of a cone concentric to the axis and defining the pitch surface or one of the extremities of the threads or teeth.

  5. Ceramics. pyrometric cone.

verb (used with object),coned, con·ing.
  1. to shape like a cone or a segment of a cone.

Origin of cone

1
1480–90; <Latin cōnus<Greek kônos pine-cone, cone-shaped figure; akin to hone1

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use cone in a sentence

  • But you can't start this morning, because you're coning with Jill and me to choose the rug.

    Berry And Co. | Dornford Yates
  • "I saw Mr. Munt coning up from the boat," she said in answer to Mavering's demand for some sort of astonishment from her.

    April Hopes | William Dean Howells
  • He lay a long time tossing, and proing and coning, without being able to arrive at any satisfactory solution of the matter.

  • It was strangely suggestive that news of their King coning should trouble these national leaders.

  • Upon this framework, the prominence of his family, she built up during the coning week a new structure of hope.

    A Modern Chronicle, Complete | Winston Churchill

British Dictionary definitions for cone

cone

/ (kəʊn) /


noun
    • a geometric solid consisting of a plane base bounded by a closed curve, often a circle or an ellipse, every point of which is joined to a fixed point, the vertex, lying outside the plane of the base. A right circular cone has a vertex perpendicularly above or below the centre of a circular base. Volume of a cone: 1/3 π r ² h, where r is the radius of the base and h is the height of the cone

    • a geometric surface formed by a line rotating about the vertex and connecting the peripheries of two closed plane bases, usually circular or elliptical, above and below the vertex: See also conic section

  1. anything that tapers from a circular section to a point, such as a wafer shell used to contain ice cream

    • the reproductive body of conifers and related plants, made up of overlapping scales, esp the mature female cone, whose scales each bear a seed

    • a similar structure in horsetails, club mosses, etc: Technical name: strobilus

  1. a small cone-shaped bollard used as a temporary traffic marker on roads

  2. Also called: retinal cone any one of the cone-shaped cells in the retina of the eye, sensitive to colour and bright light

verb
  1. (tr) to shape like a cone or part of a cone

Origin of cone

1
C16: from Latin cōnus, from Greek kōnus pine cone, geometrical cone

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for cone

cone

[ kōn ]


  1. A three-dimensional surface or solid object in which the base is a circle and upper surface narrows to form a point. The surface of a cone is formed mathematically by moving a line that passes through a fixed point (the vertex) along a circle.

  2. A rounded or elongated reproductive structure that consists of sporophylls or scales arranged spirally or in an overlapping fashion along a central stem, as in conifers and cycads. For example, the familiar woody pinecone is actually the female cone, made up of ovule-bearing scales. The smaller male cones of the pine consist of thin overlapping microsporophylls. These produce pollen that is carried by the wind to fertilize ovules in the female cones. When the seeds in the female cones mature, the cones of many pine species expand to release them. In some pine species, cones release seeds only in response to the presence of fire. See also strobilus.

  1. One of the cone-shaped cells in the retina of the eye of many vertebrate animals. Cones are extremely sensitive to light and can distinguish among different wavelengths. Cones are responsible for vision during daylight and for the ability to see colors. Compare rod.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.