Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

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

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In geometry, the side of a right-angled triangle opposite the right angle.

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

  • noun (Geom.) The side of a right-angled triangle that is opposite to the right angle.

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

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

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the side of a right triangle opposite the right angle

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin hypotēnūsa, from Greek hupoteinousa, from feminine present participle of hupoteinein, to stretch or extend under : hupo-, hypo- + teinein, to stretch; see ten- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • The word hypotenuse in Greek originally meant “stretched against”.

    Euclid’s Window Leonard Mlodinow 2001

  • The word hypotenuse in Greek originally meant “stretched against”.

    Euclid’s Window Leonard Mlodinow 2001

  • The word hypotenuse in Greek originally meant “stretched against”.

    Euclid’s Window Leonard Mlodinow 2001

  • This is called a hypotenuse, which we learned yesterday in math.

    Camo Girl Kekla magoon 2011

  • This is called a hypotenuse, which we learned yesterday in math.

    Camo Girl Kekla magoon 2011

  • This is called a hypotenuse, which we learned yesterday in math.

    Camo Girl Kekla magoon 2011

  • This is called a hypotenuse, which we learned yesterday in math.

    Camo Girl Kekla magoon 2011

  • The hypotenuse already has a name, albeit a lengthy one, so we’ll keep that, except we will capitalize it to distinguish the name of our particular line, Hypotenuse, from the term the hypotenuse.

    Euclid’s Window Leonard Mlodinow 2001

  • The hypotenuse already has a name, albeit a lengthy one, so we’ll keep that, except we will capitalize it to distinguish the name of our particular line, Hypotenuse, from the term the hypotenuse.

    Euclid’s Window Leonard Mlodinow 2001

  • The hypotenuse already has a name, albeit a lengthy one, so we’ll keep that, except we will capitalize it to distinguish the name of our particular line, Hypotenuse, from the term the hypotenuse.

    Euclid’s Window Leonard Mlodinow 2001

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