vertex
NounOpen English WordNet
Noun (2)vertices, vertexes
- the point of intersection of lines or the point opposite the base of a figureType of intersection, intersection point
- the highest point (of something)“at the peak of the pyramid”Synonyms: peakapexacmeType of extreme point, extremeKinds crown, roof peak
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: 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) Anatomy The top, or crown, of the head.
(b) Astronomy The zenith, or the point of the heavens directly overhead.
(c) Mathematics 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.
☞ 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 Mathematics, the point in which the axis of the curve intersects it. — Vertex of an angle Mathematics, the point in which the sides of the angle meet. — Vertex of a solid, or Vertex of a surface of revolution Mathematics, the point in which the axis pierces the surface.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54