Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Same as hypotenuse.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun dated The side of a right triangle opposite the right angle.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • This exercise also offers a very evident control of error, for the regularity of the decreasing length of the stairs along the hypothenuse will be altered if the rods are not properly placed.

    The Montessori Method Anne E. Montessori George 1912

  • Let a man of good parts know all the maxims generally made use of in mathematics ever so perfectly, and contemplate their extent and consequences as much as he pleases, he will, by their assistance, I suppose, scarce ever come to know that the square of the hypothenuse in a right-angled triangle is equal to the squares of the two other sides.

    An Essay Concerning Human Understanding 2007

  • And it is reported that Pythagoras, upon the discovery of this problem, offered a sacrifice to the gods; for this is a much more exquisite theorem than that which lays down, that the square of the hypothenuse in a right-angled triangle is equal to the squares of the two sides.

    Essays and Miscellanies 2004

  • That the square of the hypothenuse is equal to the square of the two sides, is a proposition which expresses a relation between these figures.

    An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding 2004

  • That the square of the hypothenuse is equal to the squares of the other two sides, cannot be known, let the terms be ever so exactly defined, without a train of reasoning and enquiry.

    An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding 2004

  • And it is reported that Pythagoras, upon the discovery of this problem, offered a sacrifice to the gods; for this is a much more exquisite theorem than that which lays down, that the square of the hypothenuse in a right-angled triangle is equal to the squares of the two sides.

    Symposiacs 2004

  • He loved nothing better than a vertical path; but this way seemed indefinitely prolonged, and instead of sliding along the hypothenuse as we were now doing, he would willingly have dropped down the terrestrial radius.

    Journey to the Interior of the Earth 2003

  • The symbol of universal nature among the Egyptians was the right-angled triangle, of which the perpendicular side represented Osiris, or the male principle; the base, Isis, or the female principle; and the hypothenuse, their offspring, Horus, or the world emanating from the union of both principles.

    The Symbolism of Freemasonry Albert G. Mackey

  • It is said to have been discovered by Pythagoras while in Egypt, but was most probably taught to him by the priests of that country, in whose rites he had been initiated; it is a symbol of the production of the world by the generative and prolific powers of the Creator; hence the Egyptians made the perpendicular and base the representatives of Osiris and Isis, while the hypothenuse represented their child Horus.

    The Symbolism of Freemasonry Albert G. Mackey

  • For the geometrical proposition being that the squares of the perpendicular and base are equal to the square of the hypothenuse, they may be said to produce it in the same way as Osiris and Isis are equal to, or produce, the world.

    The Symbolism of Freemasonry Albert G. Mackey

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