umbra

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It has two meanings: affording shade, shady (umbra is shadow or shade; the earth's shadow on the moon in a lunar eclipse is called the umbra.)

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Definitions (10)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A dark area, especially the blackest part of a shadow from which all light is cut off. See Synonyms at shade.
  2. noun Astronomy The completely dark portion of the shadow cast by the earth, moon, or other body during an eclipse.
  3. noun Astronomy The darkest region of a sunspot.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • There was no obvious egress from my comprehensional umbra, but strangely enough, I suddenly understood how you might go about editing something as flexible and creative as poetry, even when you don't understand the whole poem.
  • The Latin word for shadow was umbra, and the Greek counterpart was skia.
  • It is a brief journey to the base of the arcology, which now lies deep in the monstrosity's umbra, then the capsule rises up the side until it reaches the seventy-fifth floor and edges its way through a fissure in the outer wall. —  Dozois, Gardner ; Strahan, Jonathan - SSC - The New Space Opera (v1.0)
  • The umbra is the dark region where no light falls and the penumbra is the grey area where some light falls due to various phenomena. —  Kottu
  • The two-hour flight will follow the umbra, with the aircraft's wide dome-shaped windows providing excellent views. —  ASIA Travel Tips.com
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

arboris ·  uelut ·  majorum ·  nobilis ·  magnitudine ·  pondere ·  religionis ·  patrum

Used in the same contextWord Family

umbra:   Umbra
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin, shadow.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. New Latin, from Latin umbra, shade, shadow: see umber, umber. Hence ult. umbel, umbrel, umbrella, umbrere, penumbra, adumbrate, etc.
 

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/ˈəmbrə/
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