sextant

See also: Sextant

English
A nautical sextant

Etymology

From Latin sextāns.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈsɛk.stənt/
  • Rhymes: -ɛkstənt

Noun

sextant (plural sextants)

  1. (nautical) A navigational device for deriving angular distances between objects so as to determine latitude and longitude.
    • 1674, Robert Hooke, Animadversions on the Firſt Part of the Machina Coelestis of the […] Aſtronomer Johannes Hevelius […] ‎, page 43:
      […] I can do more with a Quadrant, Sextant or Octant, of 1 foot Radius, furniſhed with Teleſcopical Sights and Screws, then [sic] can poſſibly be done with any other Inſtrument, furniſhed only with Common Sights, though 10, 20, 30, nay threeſcore foot Radius; […]
    • 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, part 1, New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:
      I took our position every morning with my crude sextant; but the results were always most unsatisfactory.
    • 1981, Saul J. Adelman, Benjamin Adelman, Bound for the Stars, →ISBN, page 227:
      Moskowitz and Devereux have designed a hyperaccurate sextant for interstellar navigation based upon the design of the sextant used by the Apollo astronauts.
  2. (geometry) One sixth of a circle or disc; a sector with an angle of 60°.
  3. (dentistry) One of six groups of adjacent teeth, excluding the wisdom teeth. The front sextants go from canine to canine, and there are sextants on the right and left of these. See w:Periodontal examination.

Translations

See also

Anagrams

Czech

Noun

sextant m inan

  1. sextant

Declension
Declension of sextant (hard masculine inanimate)
singular plural
nominative sextant sextanty
genitive sextantu sextantů
dative sextantu sextantům
accusative sextant sextanty
vocative sextante sextanty
locative sextantu sextantech
instrumental sextantem sextanty

French

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /sɛk.stɑ̃/
  • Audio(file)

Noun

sextant f (plural sextants)

  1. sextant

Further reading

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French sextant.

Noun

sextant m (plural sextanți)

  1. sextant

Declension
Declension of sextant
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) sextant sextantul (niște) sextanți sextanții
genitive/dative (unui) sextant sextantului (unor) sextanți sextanților
vocative sextantule sextanților

Swedish

Noun

sextant c

  1. (nautical) a sextant

Declension
Declension of sextant 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative sextant sextanten sextanter sextanterna
Genitive sextants sextantens sextanters sextanternas

References
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