Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A partial shadow, as in an eclipse, between regions of complete shadow and complete illumination.
- noun The diffuse outer part of a sunspot.
- noun An area in which something exists to a lesser or uncertain degree.
- noun An outlying surrounding region; a periphery.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A surrounding fringe or border, as in the distribution of metamorphic effects produced by an igneous mass.
- noun The partial shadow between the full light and the total shadow caused by an opaque body intercepting a part of the light from a luminous body.
- noun The gray fringing border which surrounds the dark umbra or nucleus of a sun-spot.
- noun In painting, the boundary of shade and light, where the one blends with the other, the gradation being almost imperceptible.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An incomplete or partial shadow.
- noun (Astron.) The shadow cast, in an eclipse, where the light is partly, but not wholly, cut off by the intervening body; the space of partial illumination between the umbra, or perfect shadow, on all sides, and the full light.
- noun (Paint.) The part of a picture where the shade imperceptibly blends with the light.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A partially shaded area around the edges of a
shadow , especially aneclipse . - noun astronomy A region around the edge of a
sunspot , darker than the sun's surface but lighter than the middle of the sunspot. - noun figuratively An area of
uncertainly orintermediacy between twomutually exclusive states or categories. - noun figuratively An area that lies on the
edge of something; afringe . - noun Something
related to,connected to, andimplied by, the existence of something else that is necessary for the second thing to be full andcomplete in itsessential aspects . - noun medicine (in "
ischaemic penumbra", after astroke ) A region of the brain that has lost only some of itsblood supply, and retains structural integrity but has lost function.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a fringe region of partial shadow around an umbra
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
The word penumbra has been adopted by d6. Help support Wordnik by adopting your own word here.
Examples
-
And a penumbra is a different kettle of fish entirely – the metaphor was used by Justice Douglas in Griswold v. Connecticut and partakes more of substantive due process than anything else.
The Volokh Conspiracy » The First Amendment and Advertisements of Legal Prostitution 2010
-
And a penumbra is a different kettle of fish entirely–the metaphor was used by Justice Douglas in Griswold v.
The Volokh Conspiracy » The First Amendment and Advertisements of Legal Prostitution 2010
-
A penumbra is the partial shadow cast onto one celestial body (e.g., the Earth) when another celestial body (e.g., the Moon) partically but not completely occludes light from a source (e.g., the Sun).
Samuel Alito 2005
-
The next circle is less dark, and called the penumbra, because it so closely resembles the penumbra.
Remarks Bill Nye 1873
-
The penumbra is the pale outer portion of the Earth's shadow.
-
The penumbra is the pale outer portion of the Earth's shadow.
-
In this area called the penumbra, cells get a little more oxygen so there is the potential for recovery if the waves can be silenced, he says.
PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2009
-
Given that cells get a little more oxygen in the area called the penumbra, he thinks that there is the potential for recovery if the waves can be silenced.
-
The moon passing through the outer region of the Earth's shadow, known as the penumbra, will be visible from Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia's west coast at
Stars and Stripes 2009
-
It does enter a region of space called the penumbra, in which the Earth partially blocks the Sun.
Museum Blogs 2009
beautifulpyre commented on the word penumbra
Almost shadow.
April 30, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word penumbra
*waits for the inevitable taking of penumbrage*
April 30, 2009
reesetee commented on the word penumbra
You know us well. :-)
May 2, 2009
ruzuzu commented on the word penumbra
"n. A surrounding fringe or border, as in the distribution of metamorphic effects produced by an igneous mass." --CD&C
March 14, 2012
RevBrently commented on the word penumbra
From p. 10 of Patrick Leigh Fermor's "A Time to Keep Silence":
This hanging pulpit framed the head and shoulders of a monk, reading from a desk by the light of a lamp which hollowed a glowing alcove out of the penumbra.
January 21, 2014