penumbra – English noun declension

English noun forms of penumbra

Noun: penumbra
Singularpenumbra
Pluralpenumbras; penumbrae

Sample Sentences

  • [A]ny penumbral fringe that may be detected cannot be well distinguished from the effects of the true penumbræ; […] [1875 October, E. Neison [pseudonym; Edmund Neville Nevill], “On the Condition of the Atmospheres of the Planets”, in William Crookes, editor, The Quarterly Journal of Science, […], volume V (New Series; XII, Old Series), London: Offices of the Quarterly Journal of Science, […], →OCLC, page 460:]
  • The other places see the penumbra of the moon's shadow fall on the earth, so the eclipse is partial, and part of the sun's disc is still visible. [2011, Galen C. Duree, Jr., Optics for Dummies, Wiley Publishing, Inc., published 2011, →ISBN, page 61:]
  • In the boiling temperature of 119 ° F – the hottest they had experienced so far – they watched as the penumbra of Venus blurred its outline at the precise moment the disc crossed the sun. [2011, Frank McLynn, Captain Cook: Master of the Seas, Yale University Press, published 2011, →ISBN, page 112:]
  • The part of the moon that remains in the penumbra receives some direct sunlight, and the glare is usually great enough to prevent your seeing the faint coppery glow of the part of the moon in the umbra. [2012, Michael A. Seeds, Dana E. Backman, Horizons: Exploring the Universe, Brooks/Cole, published 2012, →ISBN, page 37:]
  • The atmosphere was very clear, evidenced by the steadiness with which the mottling of the sun’s surface and the penumbræ of several spots were visible. [1868 December 8, Henry Pratt, “The Transit of Mercury”, in The Astronomical Register: […], volume VII, number 73 (January 1869), London: J. D. Potter, […], →OCLC, “Correspondence” section, page 20:]
  • The velocities found in the penumbræ of spots generally increase with the distance from the centre of radiation, the motion being zero at some point in the umbra, and accelerating outwards. [1921, Kodaikanal Observatory Bulletin, volume III, New Delhi: Manager of Publications, →OCLC, page 173:]
  • These firms or businesses are not illegal in the strict sense, but there is a shadowy penumbra within which they live, and it is often convenient for the government to look the other way. [1998, Debraj Ray, Development Economics, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, pages 346–347:]
  • […] God chose to descend into the realm of human imperfection, where the light of truth is spare and must exist in the penumbra of partial knowledge mixed with partial ignorance. [2010, Denis Farkasfalvy, Inspiration and Interpretation: A Theological Introduction to Sacred Scripture, The Catholic University of America Press, published 2010, →ISBN, page 188:]
  • Unlike some of his contemporaries Parkes never implied that the Irish were close, in the racial hierarchy, to black, condemned to some racial penumbra, between black and white; but nor, given Catholic exclusion from the given traditions of his native radicalism, were the Irish white in the same way that he was. [2011, Bill Schwartz, The White Man's World, Oxford University Press, published 2011, →ISBN, page 136:]
  • Thank God we are not all cowards, we have not all a low ambition, which would make men shades, pœnumbræ^([sic]) of their fellows. [1842, [George B. Loring], England Opposed to Slavery, or Some Remarks upon “An Examination into the Real Causes of the War Against the United States, and an Appeal to the Other Powers of Europe Against the Purposes of England.”, Boston: Benjamin H. Greene, pages 48–49:]
  • Whilst the orthodox, de-charismatized churches steadily lose influence and support and the new cults develop, in the religious penumbra there have persisted, during the last century, echoes of charisma. [1975, Bryan R. Wilson, The Noble Savages: The Primitive Origins of Charisma and Its Contemporary Survival, Quantum Books, published 1975, →ISBN, page 116:]
  • But for all the expansionist energy of a metro area that sprawls from Wisconsin to Indiana (total population: 7.2 million), downtown Chicago and its penumbra also stand rejuvenated. [1986, John McCormick, “Chicago Bounces Back”, in Newsweek, volume 108, page 42:]
  • Some are accounts of the latest advances, but too many are in that weary penumbra of science inhabited by sociologists, who wander like children in a toyshop, playing with devices they scarcely understand. [2000, Steve Jones, The Language of Genes, Flamingo, →ISBN, page xv:]
  • The foregoing [United States Supreme Court] cases suggest that specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights have penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance. [1965, William O. Douglas, Griswold v. Connecticut, United States Reports, 381 U.S. 479]

Etymology

From New Latin pēnumbra, from Latin paene (“almost”) + umbra (“shadow”). See: Latin Nouns 'paene'.

Verbs referencing "penumbra"

Finnish Nouns penumbra.