noun
-
the state or quality of being convex
-
a convex surface, object, etc; bulge
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of convexity
From the Latin word convexitās, dating back to 1590–1600. See convex, -ity
Explanation
The quality of something being round or curved in shape is its convexity. You could describe the convexity of a round, squat vase. The noun convexity is somewhat technical for everyday use — you're more likely to see it in a math textbook than to hear a friend use it to talk about a goldfish bowl. Still, it is a perfectly good way to describe anything that curves or bulges outward, whether it's the belly of a Chinese Buddha or a balloon. Convexity comes from the adjective convex, with its Latin root word convexus, "vaulted or arched."
Vocabulary lists containing convexity
The Lightning Thief
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The Call of Chtulhu
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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.
See Examples For:
This habit creates an excessive lenticular convexity which, over a period of time, causes a focal point in front of the retina, thereby producing a myopic or nearsighted condition.
From Time Magazine Archive
This convexity, this pimple of curiosity, this wart of circumspection, is indeed worthy of jest.
From Time Magazine Archive
The new 64 Convertible, as with other models recently designed in-house at Hatteras, incorporates a slight degree of convexity forward.
From Time Magazine Archive
The net of his discourse was that if you live inside a ball, you cannot have any conception of its outside convexity, until you get outside.
From Time Magazine Archive
His mouth was set in its habitual glower, the corners bent downward in perfect convexity, and his ashen head blended seamlessly into the white clouds overhead.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Mughal ceilings, let your mirrored convexities multiply me at once under your spell tonight.
From New York Times ● Jul. 1, 2021
A research staff works on a trading floor behind convexities of smoked glass, at cockpit-like desks of kid-glove Bentley leather with three screens apiece.
From New York Times ● Jan. 23, 2018
To re-establish the equilibrium of the column, “secondary” or “compensatory” curves, with their convexities to the left, develop in the regions above and below the primary curve.
From Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. by Alexander Miles
The convexities on one side of the fissure correspond with marked regularity to the concavities on the other.
From Wanderings by southern waters, eastern Aquitaine by Edward Harrison Barker
Its rays fell upon the wall before me and suddenly upon the convexities I have described seven little circles of light sprang out.
From The Moon Pool by Abraham Merritt
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.
