penumbra

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The lighter one, called the penumbra, will not have too much effect but the umbra, the inner and darker shadow, will darken the Moon.

From BBC • Sep. 17, 2024

But the Earth also casts a wider, and lighter, shadow, called the penumbra, which extends away from the planet at an angle.

From Slate • Apr. 5, 2024

His non-adult fiction occupies a penumbra between “not really classics” and “better than most of the crap pushed at kids.”

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 22, 2023

Dried sunflowers and books fashioned from lead are recurrent themes of a world that hovers in the penumbra between life and death.

From New York Times • Nov. 18, 2022

New plants and animals, whether in the New World or the Old, had no such chain of associations, no penumbra of cultural meanings.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton