vertex

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.

   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 .

   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 Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Borrowed from Latin vertex.

• IPA^(key): /vɛʁ.tɛks/

• Audio:

  (file)

vertex m (plural vertex)

1. (anatomy) vertex

• “vertex” in Émile Littré, Dictionnaire de la langue française, 1872–1877.
• “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.t̪eks]

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

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’s 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, 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), 2004–2025