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concave

adjective · noun · verb

Simple meaning

Curved like the inner surface of a sphere or bowl.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kahnkayv

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

kɑnˈkeɪv

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Curved like the inner surface of a sphere or bowl.

  2. geometrynot comparableof a polygon

    Not convex; having at least one internal angle greater than 180 degrees.

  3. (functional analysis, not comparable, of a real-valued function on the reals) Satisfying the property that all segments connecting two points on the function's graph lie below the function.

  4. Hollow; empty.

noun

  1. One of the celestial spheres of the Ptolemaic or geocentric model of the world.

  2. The vault of the sky.

  3. A concave surface or curve.

verb

  1. To render concave, or increase the degree of concavity.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Curved like the inner surface of a sphere or bowl.

Used this way, concave is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

concave lensconcave functionconcave shapeslightly concaveconcave mirrorconcave sideconcave surfacestrictly concave

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • concave polygonnounCompound term

    A polygon such that there is a straight line that cuts it in four or more points.

  • concave polyhedronnounCompound term

    A polyhedron some of whose plane sections are concave polygons.

  • concave shapenounCompound term

    A shape that curves or bends inward.

  • concave lensnounCompound term

    A lens such that a parallel beam of light passing through it is caused to diverge or spread out.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: curved like the inner surface of a sphere

indented

Antonyms

Sense: curved like the inner surface of a sphere

convex

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.