compass rose
Americannoun
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Navigation. a circle divided into 32 points or 360° numbered clockwise from true or magnetic north, printed on a chart or the like as a means of determining the course of a vessel or aircraft.
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a similar design, often ornamented, used on maps to indicate the points of the compass.
noun
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.
One extraordinary map from 1834 shown in the book compares the lengths of the world’s rivers in lines that branch outward from a central compass rose.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 31, 2025
Printed on delicate yellow paper that was almost translucent, “The Americana Treasure Map” was decorated with drawings of galleons, pirates and a compass rose embellished with a skull and crossbones.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2023
A blue compass rose with an orange northward arrow is laid over an empty section of each page, and each page is given a district name.
From The New Yorker • May 23, 2019
Truth to tell, some of the handsomest quilts are nothing but borders whose different patterns and shifting rhythms continue to the center, sometimes culminating in a compass rose.
From New York Times • Oct. 25, 2017
Mews had a circular central hub with eight wings radiating in each direction so it looked like a compass rose.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
