vertex

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a point where two or more lines, edges, or curves meet, especially a corner of a geometric figure

   Each vertex of the triangle joins two sides.

2. 2
   noun

   the highest point or apex of something

   The climbers finally reached the vertex of the ridge.

Borrowed from Latin vertex ("whirl, crown, summit"), from vertere ("to turn"). The geometric sense treats a corner as the point at which a line turns; the sense "highest point" continues the Latin idea of a crown or summit.

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