angle

• enPR: ăng'gəl, IPA^(key): /ˈæŋ.ɡəl/

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• Rhymes: -æŋɡəl

From Middle English angle, angul, angule, borrowed from Middle French angle, from Latin angulus, anglus (“corner, remote area”). Cognate with Old High German ancha (“nape of the neck”), Middle High German anke (“joint of the foot, nape of neck”). Doublet of angulus.

Diagram of an angle

angle (plural angles)

1. (geometry) A figure formed by two rays which start from a common point (a plane angle) or by three planes that intersect (a solid angle).

   the angle between lines A and B

2. (geometry) The measure of such a figure. In the case of a plane angle, this is the ratio (or proportional to the ratio) of the arc length to the radius of a section of a circle cut by the two rays, centered at their common point. In the case of a solid angle, this is the ratio of the surface area to the square of the radius of the section of a sphere.

   The angle between lines A and B is π/4 radians, or 45 degrees.

   • 2013 July-August, Fenella Saunders, “Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture”, in American Scientist:

     The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail.

3. A corner where two walls intersect.

   an angle of a building

4. A change in direction.

   The horse took off at an angle.

5. A viewpoint; a way of looking at something.
   • 2013 January, Katie L. Burke, “Ecological Dependency”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 1, page 64:

     In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.”

   • 2005, Adams Media, Adams Job Interview Almanac, page 299:

     For example, if I was trying to repitch an idea to a producer who had already turned it down, I would say something like, "I remember you said you didn't like my idea because there was no women's angle. Well, here's a great one that both of us must have missed during our first conversation."

6. (media) The focus of a news story.
7. Any of various hesperiid butterflies.
8. (slang, professional wrestling) A storyline between two wrestlers, providing the background for and approach to a feud.
9. (slang) An ulterior motive; a scheme or means of benefitting from a situation, usually hidden, often immoral

   His angle is that he gets a percentage, but mostly in trade.

10. A projecting or sharp corner; an angular fragment.
    • 1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

      though but an angle reached him of the stone

11. (astrology) Any of the four cardinal points of an astrological chart: the Ascendant, the Midheaven, the Descendant and the Imum Coeli.

• (corner): corner, nook
• (change in direction): swerve
• (vertex): -gon (as per hexagon)
• (viewpoint): opinion, perspective, point of view, slant, view, viewpoint

From Middle English anglen (“to meet at an angle, converge”), from the noun (see above).

angle (third-person singular simple present angles, present participle angling, simple past and past participle angled)

1. (transitive, often in the passive) To place (something) at an angle.

   The roof is angled at 15 degrees.

2. (intransitive, informal) To change direction rapidly.

   The five ball angled off the nine ball but failed to reach the pocket.

3. (transitive, informal) To present or argue something in a particular way or from a particular viewpoint.

   How do you want to angle this when we talk to the client?

4. (transitive, cue sports) To hamper (oneself or one's opponent) by leaving the cue ball in the jaws of a pocket such that the surround of the pocket (the "angle") blocks the path from cue ball to object ball.

From Middle English angel (“fishhook”), from Old English angel (“hook, fishhook”), from Proto-West Germanic *angul, from Proto-Germanic *angulaz (“hook”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂enk- (“to make crooked, bend”). Cognate with West Frisian angel (“fishing rod, stinger”), Dutch angel (“fishhook”), German Angel (“fishing pole”), Icelandic öngull (“fishhook”).

angle (plural angles)

1. A fishhook; tackle for catching fish, consisting of a line, hook, and bait, with or without a rod.
   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v]:

     Give me mine angle: we'll to the river there.

   • 1717, Alexander Pope, Vertuminus and Pomona:

     A fisher next his trembling angle bears.

From Middle English anglen (“to fish, fish with a hook”, literally “to fish-hook”), perhaps from Old English *anglian, from Proto-West Germanic *anglōn (“to hook”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian ongelje (“to fish, angle”), Dutch hengelen (“to fish, angle”), German Low German angeln (“to fish, angle”), German angeln (“to fish, angle”).

angle (third-person singular simple present angles, present participle angling, simple past and past participle angled)

1. (intransitive, figurative) To try to catch fish with a hook and line.
2. (informal, with for) To attempt to subtly persuade someone to offer a desired thing.

   He must be angling for a pay rise.

• Angel, Elgan, Galen, Lange, Legan, Nagle, agnel, angel, genal, glean, lenga

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈaŋ.ɡlə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencian) [ˈaŋ.ɡle]

Inherited from Latin angulus

angle m (plural angles)

1. (geometry) angle (figure formed by two rays which start from a common point)
2. angle (a corner where two walls intersect)

• angular

angle m or f (masculine and feminine plural angles)

1. Anglian (of or pertaining to the Angles)

angle m or f by sense (plural angles)

1. Angle (member of a Germanic tribe)

• anglo-

• “angle” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “angle” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

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angle

1. in the English language
2. in the manner of an English person

Inherited from Middle French angle, from Old French angle, from Latin angulus, anglus.

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃ɡl/

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angle m (plural angles)

1. (geometry) a geometric angle

   La mesure d’un angle droit est égale à 90 degrés.

   The measure of a right angle is equal to 90 degrees.

2. a location at the corner of something, such as streets, buildings, furniture etc.

   Synonym: coin

3. a viewpoint or angle

• Inside a room, the word coin (“corner”) is more usual.

• coin

• “angle”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• génal, glane, glané

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angle

1. inflection of angeln:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. singular imperative
   3. first/third-person singular subjunctive I

From French anglais (“English”).

• IPA^(key): /ãɡle/

angle

1. English language

• IPA^(key): /ˈan.ɡle/
• Rhymes: -anɡle
• Hyphenation: àn‧gle

angle f pl

1. feminine plural of anglo

angle f

1. plural of angla

• glena, lagne, legna

From French anglais.

angle

1. English language

angle

1. English

• ange, angele, angre, enge

From Late Latin angelus, from Ancient Greek ἄγγελος (ángelos).

angle oblique singular, m (oblique plural angles, nominative singular angles, nominative plural angle)

1. angel (biblical being)

• Middle French: ange, angele, aingle, engle, angle, angre
  • French: ange
    • Haitian Creole: zanj
  • Norman: aunge
• Picard: anche
• Walloon: andje
• → Middle English: aungel, engel, angel, ængel, aungil, aungell, angell, angyl, angyll, angylle, awngel, enngell
  • English: angel (see there for further descendants)
  • Scots: angel, aungel

From Middle High German angel, from Old High German angul. Compare German angeln, English angle.

angle

1. to fish, angle