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penumbrous. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
penumbrous, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
penumbrous in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
penumbrous you have here. The definition of the word
penumbrous will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
penumbrous, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From penumbra + -ous.
Pronunciation
Adjective
penumbrous (comparative more penumbrous, superlative most penumbrous)
- Partially shaded.
- the penumbrous calm of the cathedral interior
- Vague; ill-defined; unclear.
1951, Reginald Hargreaves, This Happy Breed: Sidelights on Soldiers and Soldiering, page 237:Yet such Commissions were awarded, and far more frequently than might be supposed in view of the infinitely wider gulf—both social and educational—which divided the eighteenth-century Officer from the rank and file, than the penumbrous border line which separates them today.
1961, Gerard Smith, Lottie H. Kendzierski, The philosophy of being: Metaphysics I, page 326:Everyone knows God in his penumbrous knowledge of common esse.
1982, Open Letter, page 119:This is that from which metaphor springs dissatisfying, penumbrous - the silence on occult matters, or those of predestination, of genetics or environment - and the source of circumlocution, the ambiguous alchemical directives.
1992, James R. Cooper, Twilight's Last Gleaming: The Price of Happiness in America, page 39:In the early nineteenth century, when high school and college education was a rare experience for the average American citizen, judicial determination of vague, penumbrous fundamental rights was carried out by the educated classes.