VERNAL EQUINOX

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does vernal equinox mean? 

• VERNAL EQUINOX (noun)
  The noun VERNAL EQUINOX has 2 senses:

1. March 21

2. (astronomy) the equinoctial point that lies in the constellation of Pisces

  Familiarity information: VERNAL EQUINOX used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VERNAL EQUINOX (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

March 21

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

March equinox; spring equinox; vernal equinox

Hypernyms ("vernal equinox" is a kind of...):

equinox (either of two times of the year when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator and day and night are of equal length)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "vernal equinox"):

Noruz; Nowrooz; Nowruz ((Persian) the new year holiday in Iran and Azerbaijan and Afghanistan and Pakistan and parts of India and among the Kurds; comes at the vernal equinox)

Holonyms ("vernal equinox" is a part of...):

Mar; March (the month following February and preceding April)

spring; springtime (the season of growth)

Antonym:

autumnal equinox (September 22)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(astronomy) the equinoctial point that lies in the constellation of Pisces

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Hypernyms ("vernal equinox" is a kind of...):

equinoctial point; equinox ((astronomy) either of the two celestial points at which the celestial equator intersects the ecliptic)

Domain category:

astronomy; uranology (the branch of physics that studies celestial bodies and the universe as a whole)

 Context examples 

Every fourth year, at the vernal equinox, there is a representative council of the whole nation, which meets in a plain about twenty miles from our house, and continues about five or six days.

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