vertex

• (nonstandard) vertice

Late Middle English, borrowed from Latin vertex (“whirl, eddy; top, crown, peak, summit”). Doublet of vortex.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈvɜː.tɛks/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈvɝˌtɛks/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)tɛks

vertex (plural vertices or vertexes)

1. The highest point, top or apex of something.

   The mountain’s vertex was covered in snow.

   He reached the vertex of his career after decades of work.

   Synonyms: acme, apex, peak, top

   Antonym: fundus

   1. (anatomy) The highest surface on the skull; the crown of the head.
2. (geometry) An angular point of a polygon, polyhedron or higher order polytope.
   1. The common point of the two rays that form an angle.
   2. The point at which an axis meets a curve or surface.
3. (mathematics) A point on the curve with a local minimum or maximum of curvature.
5. (graph theory) One of the elements of a graph joined or not by edges to other vertices.

   Synonym: node

   Coordinate term: plot

6. (computer graphics) A point in 3D space, usually given in terms of its Cartesian coordinates.
7. (optics) The point where the surface of a lens crosses the optical axis.
8. (particle physics) An interaction point.
9. (astrology) The point where the prime vertical meets the ecliptic in the western hemisphere of a natal chart.
10. (typography) A sharp downward point opposite a crotch, as in the letters "V" and "W" but not "Y".

    Coordinate term: apex

• vertical

• Mathworld article on vertices of polyhedra
• Mathworld article on vertices of polygons

• “vertex”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “vertex”, in Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Borrowed from Latin vertex.

• IPA^(key): /vɛʁ.tɛks/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

vertex m (invariable)

1. (anatomy) vertex

• Littré, Émile (1873–1878), “vertex”, in Dictionnaire de la langue française, Paris: L. Hachette
• “vertex”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• vortex (archaic)

From vertō (“to turn around, turn about”).

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈwɛr.tɛks]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈvɛr.teks]

vertex m (genitive verticis); third declension

1. whirl, whirlpool, eddy, vortex
2. eddy of wind or flame, whirlwind, coil of flame
3. (literally, anatomy) top, crown of the head
4. (poetic) head

   vacuus vertex ― an empty head

5. pole of the heavens (north or south)
6. highest point, top, peak, summit (of a mountain, house, tree, etc.)

   Synonyms: cacūmen, apex, culmen, fastīgium, summitās

   Antonym: fundus

   a vertice ― from above/at the top

   in verticem ― upright/vertically

7. (figurative, poetic) highest, uttermost, greatest
8. (Neo-Latin, mathematics) vertex

Third-declension noun.

• “vertex”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “vertex”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "vertex", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “vertex”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the pole: vertex caeli, axis caeli, cardo caeli
    
• Dizionario Latino, Olivetti
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002), “vĕrtex”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volume 14: U–Z, page 320
• Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1911), “vĕrtex”, in Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), page 706

Borrowed from French vertex, from Latin vertex.

• IPA^(key): /ˈver.teks/

vertex n (uncountable)

1. vertex

• “vertex”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026