Eclipse
nounAn event in which one celestial body is obscured by another, such as the moon blocking the sun.
How to spell eclipse
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce eclipse
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does eclipse mean?
- nounAn event in which one celestial body is obscured by another, such as the moon blocking the sun.
- verbTo surpass, outshine, or reduce the importance of something else.
Eclipse in a sentence
-
noun
Thousands of tourists travelled north to watch the total solar eclipse.
-
verb
The new model will quickly eclipse every rival on the showroom floor.
-
noun
The lunar eclipse tinted the moon a deep coppery red for almost an hour.
-
verb
Her later novels would eclipse the modest success of her debut.
Where does eclipse come from?
Language of origin: Greek
This word traces back to the Greek ekleipsis, which literally meant 'a leaving out', 'an abandonment', or 'a failure to appear'. It was built from ek, meaning 'out', and leipein, meaning 'to leave', so the original image was of the sun or moon 'leaving' or 'failing' in the sky as it darkened. Greek passed the word to Latin as eclipsis, and from there it travelled through Old French as eclipse into English during the 1300s. The same Greek leipein root also lies behind 'ellipsis', the punctuation that marks something left out, which is a useful reminder of the shared 'leaving out' idea. The spelling trap is the unstressed opening: the word sounds like 'i-clipse' but begins with the prefix ec-, and the cluster -clipse keeps the silent-feeling Greek bones intact.
How the word is built
- ec- (from Greek ek-: out)
- lipse (from leipein: to leave)
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