Vertex

How to spell vertex

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce vertex

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does vertex mean?

1. nounA point where two or more lines or edges meet, or the highest point of a curve or shape.

Vertex in a sentence

• Each corner of the triangle is a vertex.

• The parabola reaches its lowest value at the vertex.

Where does vertex come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes straight from the Latin vertex, which meant the top, the crown of the head, or a whirling point, and was built on the verb vertere, meaning 'to turn'. The original image was of something turning around a fixed highest point, like a whirlpool or the spinning sky overhead, so a vertex was literally the point about which things turn. Latin writers used it for the very top of anything, including the summit of a mountain and the highest point of the heavens. English took it up in the 1500s, first in astronomical and anatomical senses, before it settled into its modern mathematical role as the meeting point of lines or the highest point of a curve. The same vertere root turns up in a crowd of relatives such as convert, reverse, and vertigo, that dizzy spinning sensation. Note the unusual Latin plural 'vertices', which trips up many adults who expect 'vertexes'.

How the word is built

• vert- (from Latin vertere: to turn)
• -ex (Latin noun suffix denoting a point or part)