Thesaurus.com
Dictionary.com
Definitions

penumbra

[pi-nuhm-bruh] / pɪˈnʌm brə /




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.

See Examples For:

The first phase of the eclipse begins at 02:23 BST when the Moon enters the lighter outer part of Earth's shadow, known as the penumbra.

From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026

Wygodny has written original music to subtly accompany Booth’s fable, lending the emotional subtext at points a penumbra of cello.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026

Supreme Court, fashioned a right to privacy from the penumbra of rights contained in the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Ninth Amendments to the U.S.

From Slate ● Jan. 18, 2024

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

The late afternoon sun was behind his back, so that he glowed at the edges — shadow, penumbra.

From "Typical American" by Gish Jen

Her steps became feebler, and she strained her eyes to look afar upon the naked road, now indistinct amid the penumbrae of night.

From Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

When the ascending currents are powerful, they create those appearances which astronomers designate the nuclei, the penumbrae, the faculae.

From The Story of the Herschels by Anonymous

From the top of the terrace he gazed upon this vague form standing up like a phantom in the penumbrae of the evening.

From Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert

On a December day in the foothills near Seattle, walking into the sun southward and nearly blinded, all you can see are penumbras of emerald-green moss along the vertical edges of the trunks.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 18, 2022

Rigging raises a sheet, in front of and behind which the dancers play with shadows, misshapen ones with extra auras and penumbras.

From New York Times ● Sep. 11, 2022

I have been studying the Constitution very carefully, including the emanations of the penumbras, and I can see why people might think there was some inherent right to dinner.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 8, 2022

He wrote, mystically, that “specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights have penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance.”

From The New Yorker ● May 18, 2015

The deputy pivoted in the direction of the doorway and shouted at a featureless face broken up in equidistant penumbras by four bars, “Who’s there?”

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy


Vocabulary lists containing penumbra

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 14,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training