cone

American  

[kohn] / koʊn /

noun

cones plural

1. Geometry.

   1. a solid whose surface is generated by a line passing through a fixed point and a fixed plane curve not containing the point, consisting of two equal sections joined at a vertex.

   2. a plane surface resembling the cross section of a solid cone.

2. anything shaped like a cone.

   sawdust piled up in a great cone; the cone of a volcano.

3. ice-cream cone.

4. Botany.

   1. the more or less conical multiple fruit of the pine, fir, etc., consisting of overlapping or valvate scales bearing naked ovules or seeds; a strobile.

   2. a similar fruit, as in cycads or club mosses.

5. Anatomy. one of the cone-shaped cells in the retina of the eye, sensitive to color and intensity of light.

6. one of a series of cone-shaped markers placed along a road, as around an area of highway construction, especially to exclude or divert motor vehicles.

7. (in a taper thread screw or bevel gear) an imaginary cone or frustum of a cone concentric to the axis and defining the pitch surface or one of the extremities of the threads or teeth.

8. Ceramics. pyrometric cone.

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verb (used with object)

coned, coning

1. to shape like a cone or a segment of a cone.

cone British  

/ kəʊn /

noun

1. 1. a geometric solid consisting of a plane base bounded by a closed curve, often a circle or an ellipse, every point of which is joined to a fixed point, the vertex, lying outside the plane of the base. A right circular cone has a vertex perpendicularly above or below the centre of a circular base. Volume of a cone: 1/ 3 π r ² h, where r is the radius of the base and h is the height of the cone

   2. a geometric surface formed by a line rotating about the vertex and connecting the peripheries of two closed plane bases, usually circular or elliptical, above and below the vertex See also conic section

2. anything that tapers from a circular section to a point, such as a wafer shell used to contain ice cream

3. 1. the reproductive body of conifers and related plants, made up of overlapping scales, esp the mature female cone , whose scales each bear a seed

   2. Technical name: strobilus.  a similar structure in horsetails, club mosses, etc

4. a small cone-shaped bollard used as a temporary traffic marker on roads

5. Also called: retinal cone.  any one of the cone-shaped cells in the retina of the eye, sensitive to colour and bright light

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verb

1. (tr) to shape like a cone or part of a cone

cone Scientific  

/ kōn /

1. A three-dimensional surface or solid object in which the base is a circle and upper surface narrows to form a point. The surface of a cone is formed mathematically by moving a line that passes through a fixed point (the vertex) along a circle.

2. A rounded or elongated reproductive structure that consists of sporophylls or scales arranged spirally or in an overlapping fashion along a central stem, as in conifers and cycads. For example, the familiar woody pinecone is actually the female cone, made up of ovule-bearing scales. The smaller male cones of the pine consist of thin overlapping microsporophylls. These produce pollen that is carried by the wind to fertilize ovules in the female cones. When the seeds in the female cones mature, the cones of many pine species expand to release them. In some pine species, cones release seeds only in response to the presence of fire.

3. See also strobilus

4. One of the cone-shaped cells in the retina of the eye of many vertebrate animals. Cones are extremely sensitive to light and can distinguish among different wavelengths. Cones are responsible for vision during daylight and for the ability to see colors.

5. Compare rod

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cones
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cone

1480–90; < Latin cōnus < Greek kônos pine-cone, cone-shaped figure; akin to hone ¹

Explanation

A cone is a shape that has a circle at the bottom and sides that narrow to a point, like a party hat, a rubber pylon at a construction site, or, yes, an ice cream cone. Why is a cone called a cone? The Latin word conus means "the peak of a helmet," which must have described the shape of this type of hat in the 16th century. The Greek konos means "spinning top" and "pine cone." Both of these objects have one wider end that tapers to a point, describing a cone very accurately.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cone cones coned coning

The 31-year-old Mexican tourist walked out with a cone of vanilla and chocolate swirl soft serve.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

The volcano could build a tuff cone with a long lived vent crater, or the new land could quickly collapse and erode away.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 10, 2026

The cone of silence around the wedding is the only place in which these dueling Swifts can freely coexist.

From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026

Every time the local authority removed it, at a cost, the cone would reappear and appeals for it to stop only heightened resolve.

From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026

Penelope—or Clara, Ophie supposed she should call her—laughed and reached for Ophie’s cone, exchanging it with hers.

From "Ophie's Ghosts" by Justina Ireland

They were formed with cones, shipping pallets, chairs, trash bins, or even neighbors inside a traffic circle.

From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026

But nowadays, the formerly sleepy streets are awash with diggers, orange construction cones and out-of-state license plates.

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026

Readers ages 4 to 8 follow along as the pair stop to pick berries, fish in a trout stream and share ice-cream cones.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026

Edible Arrangements’ strawberry and banana cones offer the fun of chocolate-dipped fruit without committing to one of the brand’s elaborate arrangements.

From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2026

Small cones of damp plaster standing in the floor.

From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

Visitors to the GoMA can also part with £15 to get their hands on a coned Duke of Wellington tote bag or £20 for a T-shirt.

From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026

The hole covering was unmarked and “not coned off nor identified in any way,” the complaint says.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 28, 2023

The ski-slope pre-credit sequence ought to be scooped and coned; and the climactic mine-shaft explosion looks like it cost a lot of money and geology.

From New York Times ● May 28, 2020

“Right where the hole goes in, it slopes, and it’s flattened out, and it coned back down, and that was where some really loose sediment was, and I could stick my hands into it.”

From Washington Post ● Sep. 24, 2018

This table is sharply coned, and can be made to work the dough as much or as little as may be required.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 4 "Bradford, William" to "Brequigny, Louis" by Various

Safe Street Rebel describes what it does as "coning" and some of its videos have gone viral.

From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2023

Speaking to the Standard, an unnamed Waymo spokesperson called the coning “vandalism” that “encourages unsafe and disrespectful behavior on our roadways.”

From Slate ● Jul. 11, 2023

“I was born and raised in Southern California. I’m going to help my people out, especially when people are coning to me.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2018

Justin Bieber is a drive-thru jerk: Justin Bieber, prince of pranks, tapes himself "coning" a poor Wendy's employee.

From Salon ● Aug. 1, 2011

On page 149, "coning up to" was replaced with "coming up to".

From "Pip" A Romance of Youth by Hay, Ian