subtend
Americanverb (used with object)
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Geometry. to extend under or be opposite to.
a chord subtending an arc.
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Botany. (of a leaf, bract, etc.) to occur beneath or close to.
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to form or mark the outline or boundary of.
verb
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geometry to be opposite to and delimit (an angle or side)
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(of a bract, stem, etc) to have (a bud or similar part) growing in its axil
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to mark off
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to underlie; be inherent in
Etymology
Origin of subtend
1560–70; < Latin subtendere to stretch beneath, equivalent to sub- sub- + tendere to stretch; see tend 1
Vocabulary lists containing subtend
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.
The line with letters that subtend 5 minutes of an arc from 20 feet represents the smallest letters that a person with normal acuity should be able to read at that distance.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
Any of the parts of the flower may thus subtend a flower-bud, though probably the new buds more frequently originate in the axils of the sepals than in the other whorls.
From Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants by Masters, Maxwell T.
The condition of resolution of a double line whose components subtend an angle θ is that θ must exceed λ/a.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 4 "Diameter" to "Dinarchus" by Various
It is obvious that these astrological hours will be of unequal length, as equal portions of the ecliptic subtend unequal angles at the pole of the equator.
From Notes and Queries, Number 69, February 22, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. by Bell, George
And two sides of the ordinate quinquangle doe subtend 2/5 of the same.
From The Way To Geometry by Bedwell, William
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.
