Jump To:

• arc
  arc

  noun

  any unbroken part of the circumference of a circle or other curved line.
• ARC
  ARC

  noun

  AIDS-related complex.

arc

¹ American  

[ahrk] / ɑrk /

noun

• arcs
  plural

1. Geometry. any unbroken part of the circumference of a circle or other curved line.

2. Also called electric arc. Electricity. a luminous bridge formed in a gap between two electrodes.

3. Astronomy. the part of a circle representing the apparent course of a heavenly body.

4. anything bow-shaped.

---

verb (used without object)

arced, arcked, arcing, arcking

1. to form an electric arc.

2. to move in a curve suggestive of an arc.

ARC ² American  

[ahrk] / ɑrk /

noun

1. Pathology. AIDS-related complex.

---

ARC ³ American  

Or A.R.C.

abbreviation

1. American Red Cross.

---

arc ¹ British  

/ ɑːk /

noun

1. something curved in shape

2. part of an unbroken curved line

3. a luminous discharge that occurs when an electric current flows between two electrodes or any other two surfaces separated by a small gap and a high potential difference

4. astronomy a circular section of the apparent path of a celestial body

5. maths a section of a curve, graph, or geometric figure

---

verb

1. (intr) to form an arc

prefix

1. maths specifying an inverse trigonometric function: usually written arcsin , arctan , arcsec , etc, or sometimes sin–1 , tan–1 , sec–1 , etc

ARC ² British  

abbreviation

1. AIDS-related complex: an early condition in which a person infected with the AIDS virus may suffer from such mild symptoms as loss of weight, fever, etc

---

arc Scientific  

/ ärk /

1. A segment of a circle.

2. See electric arc

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• arcs
  plural

Etymology

Origin of arc

1350–1400; Middle English ark < Latin arcus bow, arch, curve

Explanation

An arc is a curve. You can describe the bend of a rainbow as an arc. In math, an arc is one section of a circle, but in life you can use the word to mean any curved shape, like the arc of a ballerina's arm or the graceful arc of a flowering vine over a trellis. In the 14th century, arc first meant the movement of the sun in the sky, from the Old French arc, "bow or arch," and the Latin root arcus, also "bow or arch."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

arc ARC arcs arced arcing

The company expects to build plants at the site to process the ore for use in electric arc furnaces with scrap steel to make new steel.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

The strategy confirmed electric arc furnaces as the future of British steelmaking, replacing traditional blast furnaces, which resulted in job losses at steelworks including Port Talbot.

From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026

You can hear the whole argument in the arc of his songs.

From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2026

“If you’re looking at the arc — not as a Super Bowl but how the NFL wanted to come back to Los Angeles — you have Disney, a longstanding, old-school entertainment partner,” Demoff said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026

The Titan swept his broom in a wide arc, forcing the spirits back, but they came in again like the tide.

From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

The British energy major agreed to buy Canadian energy producer ARC for about $13.6 billion in April.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026

ARC produces about 375,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with liquids accounting for 40% of it, Shell says.

From Barron's ● Apr. 27, 2026

Shell also is taking on $2.8 billion of ARC net debt and leases.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 27, 2026

The ARC funding is part of a broader effort to study human origins.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 22, 2026

Decompression of files ——————————— If a file has name extensions like ZIP, LZH, ARC, PAK, LQR, LBR, ZOO, ARJ, or QQQ, you are facing a compressed file.

From The Online World by Odd De Presno

On Earth, similar processes occur beneath volcanic arcs and are associated with the formation of continents.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026

No matter the strengths of AI, a chatbot cannot dream up stories with flawed characters and themes and arcs and failures and triumphs—with ambiguous finales.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

The film is Marvel's last big-screen outing before Doomsday, the long-awaited culmination of multiple superhero story arcs after Avengers: Endgame.

From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026

Before Alphy, past seasons featured arcs about its citizens and vicars confronting bigotry.

From Salon ● Jun. 16, 2026

The water ripples in arcs around my body as I creep forward.

From "Love, Hate & Other Filters" by Samira Ahmed

Suddenly, the whale’s dark body arced above the surface before diving down to reveal its tail, or fluke.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026

It arced over the Gulf of Mexico like the four Starships before it that ended up being destroyed, either soon after liftoff or while ditching into the sea.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2024

Fitzpatrick expertly arced in an early shot before his run led to Dylan Smith's dismissal for a clumsy challenge.

From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2023

This one arced over Chelsea’s wall and dropped crisply into the bottom corner beyond Kepa Arrizabalaga’s despairing dive.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 18, 2023

I arced into the sky, the wind whistling in my ears.

From "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan

Government fire investigators said the fire, which killed 19 people and destroyed thousands of homes in Altadena, was caused by electrical arcing on Edison’s out-of-service transmission line in Eaton Canyon.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026

The ultra-fast missiles travel on a high arcing trajectory before crashing down into their target.

From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026

A birthday party had just ended, and he was offered a piece of cake, chocolate with a jelly-bean rainbow arcing across the frosting.

From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2025

The familiar approach, arcing towards the stumps, heels kicking up, limbs loose.

From BBC ● May 23, 2025

We whizzed by, arcing back up into the air, and the guards followed my attack with their own.

From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia

Related Words

• arch