gnomon

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

As visitors hover over the work, functioning as a vertical gnomon, their shadows fall onto one of the panels, depending on the time of day.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 4, 2023

The pole serves as a gnomon, the part of a sundial that casts a shadow to denote time.

From Washington Post • Apr. 17, 2020

A gnomon is the perpendicular part of a sundial, the part that casts a shadow.

From Washington Post • Jan. 10, 2018

A figure in the shape of a gnomon put round two sides of a square makes it into a larger square.

From Archimedes Men of Science by Heath, Thomas Little

Pytheas of Marseilles—who lived in the time of Alexander the Great, about 330 B.C.—measured the latitude of Marseilles by means of a gnomon, and found it to be about 42° 56′½.

From Astronomical Curiosities Facts and Fallacies by Gore, J. Ellard