SEMICIRCLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does semicircle mean? 

• SEMICIRCLE (noun)
  The noun SEMICIRCLE has 1 sense:

1. a plane figure with the shape of half a circle

  Familiarity information: SEMICIRCLE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SEMICIRCLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A plane figure with the shape of half a circle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Synonyms:

hemicycle; semicircle

Hypernyms ("semicircle" is a kind of...):

plane figure; two-dimensional figure (a two-dimensional shape)

Derivation:

semicircular (curved into a half circle)

 Context examples 

As we arrived the Indians, a semicircle of spearmen, had closed in on them, and in a minute it was over, thirty or forty died where they stood.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Entering a portal, fastened only by a latch, I stood amidst a space of enclosed ground, from which the wood swept away in a semicircle.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The chains that held my left leg were about two yards long, and gave me not only the liberty of walking backwards and forwards in a semicircle, but, being fixed within four inches of the gate, allowed me to creep in, and lie at my full length in the temple.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

As I approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When it subsided, I saw them all drawn up in four semicircles, before four chairs, placed at the four tables; all held books in their hands, and a great book, like a Bible, lay on each table, before the vacant seat.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The servants were called in, the dining-room tables wheeled away, the lights otherwise disposed, the chairs placed in a semicircle opposite the arch. While Mr. Rochester and the other gentlemen directed these alterations, the ladies were running up and down stairs ringing for their maids.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I did not now watch the actors; I no longer waited with interest for the curtain to rise; my attention was absorbed by the spectators; my eyes, erewhile fixed on the arch, were now irresistibly attracted to the semicircle of chairs.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)