cone
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.
anything shaped like a cone: sawdust piled up in a great cone; the cone of a volcano.
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.
Anatomy. one of the cone-shaped cells in the retina of the eye, sensitive to color and intensity of light.: Compare rod (def. 17).
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.
(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.
Ceramics. pyrometric cone.
to shape like a cone or a segment of a cone.
Origin of cone
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use cone in a sentence
The cups or cones are topped with everything from milk powder and flavored syrups to fresh fruit and marshmallows.
“It’s all just wait and see now,” Brown said, watching a truck full of red cones and plywood drive past her shuttered store.
D.C. police and businesses prepare for possible Election Day unrest | Peter Hermann, Emily Davies | October 30, 2020 | Washington PostOrange cones and metal signs indicated stretches of roadwork.
They point to the National Hurricane Center, a part of the National Weather Service that projects when and where a storm might hit, complete with a cone of uncertainty—the known unknowns of a forecast.
We already know how to keep the next pandemic from catching us off guard | Rob Verger | October 8, 2020 | Popular-ScienceTo address this misunderstanding, Eosco suggests that we give the cone an enhancement, or even find a new way to visualize this information.
NOAA is changing the way it talks about hurricanes | Greta Moran | September 22, 2020 | Popular-Science
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 HowellsHe lay a long time tossing, and proing and coning, without being able to arrive at any satisfactory solution of the matter.
Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour | R. S. SurteesIt was strangely suggestive that news of their King coning should trouble these national leaders.
Quiet Talks about Jesus | S. D. GordonUpon 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
/ (kəʊn) /
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
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
a small cone-shaped bollard used as a temporary traffic marker on roads
Also called: retinal cone any one of the cone-shaped cells in the retina of the eye, sensitive to colour and bright light
(tr) to shape like a cone or part of a cone
Origin of cone
1Collins 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
[ kōn ]
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.
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.
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.
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