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gnomon - 4 dictionary results

gno⋅mon

  [noh-mon]
Use gnomon in a Sentence
–noun
1. the raised part of a sundial that casts the shadow; a style.
2. an early astronomical instrument consisting of a vertical shaft, column, or the like, for determining the altitude of the sun or the latitude of a position by measuring the length of its shadow cast at noon.
3. Geometry. (formerly) the part of a parallelogram that remains after a similar parallelogram has been taken away from one of its corners.
Origin:
1540–50; < L gnōmōn pin of a sundial < Gk gnmōn lit., interpreter, discerner
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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gno·mon   (nō'mŏn', -mən)   
n.  
  1. An object, such as the style of a sundial, that projects a shadow used as an indicator.
  2. The geometric figure that remains after a parallelogram has been removed from a similar but larger parallelogram with which it shares a corner.

[Latin gnōmōn, from Greek, interpreter, pointer of a sundial, from gignōskein, to know; see gnō- in Indo-European roots.]
gno·mon'ic, gno·mon'i·cal adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Gnomon

Gno"mon\, n. [L. gnomon, Gr. ? one that knows, the index of a sundial. See Gnome.]

1. (Dialing) The style or pin, which by its shadow, shows the hour of the day. It is usually set parallel to the earth's axis.

2. (Astron.) A style or column erected perpendicularly to the horizon, formerly used in astronomocal observations. Its principal use was to find the altitude of the sun by measuring the length of its shadow.

3. (Geom.) The space included between the boundary lines of two similar parallelograms, the one within the other, with an angle in common; as, the gnomon bcdefg of the parallelograms ac and af. The parallelogram bf is the complement of the parallelogram df.

4. The index of the hour circle of a globe.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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gnomon 
"pillar that tells time by the shadow it casts, esp. on a sundial," 1546, from L. gnomon, from Gk. gnomon "indicator," lit. "one who discerns," from gignoskein "to come to know" (see gnostic).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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