pentad

American  

[pen-tad] / ˈpɛn tæd /

noun

1. a period of five years.

2. a group of five.

3. the number five.

4. Chemistry. a pentavalent element or group.

5. Climatology. a period of five consecutive days.

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pentad British  

/ ˈpɛntæd /

noun

1. a group or series of five

2. the number or sum of five

3. a period of five years

4. chem a pentavalent element, atom, or radical

5. meteorol a period of five days

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Etymology

Origin of pentad

First recorded in 1645–55; from Greek pentad- (stem of pentás ) group of five; see origin at pent-, -ad ¹

Example Sentences

In the pentad of 1923-27, U. S. investors paid $34,806,783,000 for 36,965 different issues of bonds and stocks.

From Time Magazine Archive

The word pentad at once recalls to you the way in which the chemist speaks of a monad, triad, heptad, when he deals with elements.

From An Introduction to Yoga by Besant, Annie Wood

The 'even' in the Sûtra is meant to intimate that the 'five five-people' can in no way mean the twenty-five categories, since there is no pentad of groups consisting of five each.

From The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja — Sacred Books of the East, Volume 48 by Thibaut, George

The Sâ@nkhya categories have each their individual difference, and there are no attributes belonging in common to each pentad on account of which the number twenty-five could be divided into five times five.

From The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracarya Sacred Books of the East, Volume 1 by Thibaut, George

Colours may best be expressed by a heptad, the largest possible formula for things finite, as the pentad is the smallest possible form.

From Specimens of the Table Talk of Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Coleridge, Henry Nelson