Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Architecture An eyelike opening or ornament, especially:
- n. A round window.
- n. A circular opening at the apex of a dome.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In anatomy, the eye; an eye; specifically, a compound eye.
- n. In botany, an eye; a leaf-bud.
- n. A European plant, Inula Oculus-Christi, having astringent properties.
- n. In architecture, a circular window, usually a small one without tracery or other special subdivision; also an opening at the summit of a dome-shaped vault.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An eye.
- n. A round window, usually a small one.
- n. A leaf bud.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the organ of sight
Etymologies
- Medieval Latin, from Latin, eye; see okw- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Skidmore, Owings & Merrill/John Blaustein An almond-shaped skylight or "oculus" is at the top of the building, through which sunlight shines in different patterns throughout the day.”
The Wall Street Journal: Inside Oakland's Cathedral of Christ the Light
“oculus" was sometimes applied to things that were seen to resemble eyes, and one such thing was the bud of a plant.”
“I evoked the oculus in the coffered dome, an engineering feat as well as a symbolic gesture of colossal proportions.”
The Huffington Post: Alla Kazovsky: Orchestrating Experience
“What you notice as you approach Centra from the Metropark train station, a five- minute walk down the road, is its new fourth floor, which cantilevers out over a plaza and completes the square of the "L", leaving an oculus in the center.”
“But he is most jazzed by the atmospheric breakfast parlor, a domed lair that's dramatically lit by concealed skylights and a stained-glass oculus.”
“The walls rise to nearly 100 feet before embracing a large almond shaped ‘oculus’ window.”
“St. John Cantius explains: In Rome on Pentecost, in the Pantheon (i.e. the minor basilica called S. Maria ad martyres) there is a beautiful and ancient custom of dropping rose petals through the circular oculus opening at the top of the dome.”
“May 31, 2009: rose petals rain through the open oculus of Rome's Pantheon (the Basilica of Sancta Maria ad Martyres) during their annual celebration on the Solemnity of Pentecost while the Veni Sancte Spiritus is chanted.”
Pentecost Sunday at the Basilica of Santa Maria ad Martyres (the Pantheon)
“And OD is short for oculus dexter, or right eye, not for overdose.”
“The rotunda's ideal proportions; the weight of the dome lifted above one's shoulders, suspended in air by icy mathematic precision; the oculus letting in the rain and the searing Roman sunlight; the coolness and shade that nonetheless prevails.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘oculus’.
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Palynology
List of terms used in the study and classification of pollen and spores - both fossil and modern.
tetrad, abporal, ectoaperture, lacuna, grain, spore, lophate, acalymmate, monad, polyad, hexad, calymmate and 513 more...
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oculi-, oculo-
eye
whichbe A round, central opening or "eye" in a dome. (From ArtLex) Jun 4, 2008