acuminate

American  

[uh-kyoo-muh-nit, -neyt, uh-kyoo-muh-neyt] / əˈkyu mə nɪt, -ˌneɪt, əˈkyu məˌneɪt /

adjective

1. Botany, Zoology. pointed; tapering to a point.

---

verb (used with object)

acuminated, acuminating

1. to make sharp or keen.

acuminate British  

adjective

1. narrowing to a sharp point, as some types of leaf

---

verb

1. (tr) to make pointed or sharp

Other Word Forms

• acumination
  noun
• subacuminate
  adjective
• subacumination
  noun

Etymology

Origin of acuminate

1595–1605; < Latin acūminātus (past participle of acūmināre ), equivalent to acūmin- (stem of acūmen ) acumen + -ātus -ate ¹

Example Sentences

Another species in crisis is the acuminate crayfish, which is unique to Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, experts said, and found largely in the Anacostia watershed.

From Washington Post • Oct. 22, 2021

A series of fortunate events brought me to a floor somewhere in the mid-twenties of London’s most acuminate skyscraper, the 72-storey, 306-metre Shard.

From The Guardian • Jun. 9, 2014

The parasphenoids are large elements characterized by acuminate cultriform processes and posterolaterally inclined alary processes.

From A Synopsis of Neotropical Hylid Frogs, Genus Osteocephalus by Duellman, William E.

Stem short, naked above, the numerous racemes in a usually nearly simple cyme, leaves narrow, acuminate; seeds globose, without caruncle.—Del. and southward.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

Very similar, but smoother and deeper green, with more slender, linear-cylindric, more or less flexuous spikes, the lateral ones spreading or divaricate, and the sepals more frequently acute or acuminate.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa