adj
gibbous
Gibbous (adj) means Curved outwards, like a bulge.
adj
1
Curved outwards, like a bulge.
2
(astronomy) Describes the moon or a planet when more than half but not all of its face is lit up.
"The moving moon, full, gibbous, or crescent-shaped, shone at last for the navigators of the eighteenth century like a luminous hand on the clock of heaven."
— Dava Sobel, Longitude (1995)
"On December 7, 1972, the Apollo 17 astronauts took a photograph of a gibbous Earth at a distance of eighteen thousand miles from its surface."
— Ruth Ozeki, The Book of Form and Emptiness (2021)
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Etymology
From Middle English gibbous, from Latin gibbus (“humped, hunched”), probably cognate with cubō (“bend oneself, lie down”), Italian gobba (“humpback”), Ancient Greek κῡφός (kūphós, “humpback, bent”), κύβος (kúbos, “cube, vertebra”), Spanish giboso (“humped”). Also ultimately compare dialectal Norwegian keiv (“slanted, wrong”), German schief (“crooked, slanting”) and Dutch scheef (“crooked, slanting”).
Synonyms
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Rhymes for gibbous
See all rhymes for gibbous →Frequently asked questions
What is the meaning of gibbous?
"gibbous" (adj) means curved outwards, like a bulge.
What is another word for gibbous?
Other words for "gibbous" include hunchbacked, crookbacked, crookback, gibbose, humped, humpbacked.
What is the opposite of gibbous?
The opposite of "gibbous" is crescent.
What are the different meanings of gibbous?
"gibbous" has 2 main meanings: 1. Curved outwards, like a bulge; 2. (astronomy) Describes the moon or a planet when more than half but not all of its face is lit up.
