gnomon
gno·mon/ˈnoʊˌmɑn/noun
gnomon is spelled G-N-O-M-O-N: 6 letters and 2 syllables (gno·mon). It appears about once in every 17 million words in written English, the 122,704th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, gnomon means “An object such as a pillar or a rod that is used to tell time by the shadow it casts when the sun shines on it, especially the pointer on a sundial” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of gnomon is gnomons.
How many letters and syllables are in gnomon?
| Letters | 6: G-N-O-M-O-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: gno·mon |
| In writing | about once in every 17 million words; the 122,704th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is gnomon?
Gnomon appears about once in every 17 million words in written English, the 122,704th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce gnomon?
- UK /ˈnəʊˌmɒn/
- UK /ˈnəʊ.mən/
- US /ˈnoʊˌmɑn/
Gnomon has 2 syllables, split gno·mon in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-gnomon.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of gnomon
- gnomons plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does gnomon mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An object such as a pillar or a rod that is used to tell time by the shadow it casts when the sun shines on it, especially the pointer on a sundial.
- 2
An object such as a pillar used by an observer to calculate the meridian altitude of the sun (that is, the altitude of the sun when it reaches the observer's meridian), for the purpose of determining the observer's latitude.
- 3
The index of the hour circle of a globe.
- 4
A plane figure formed by removing a parallelogram from a corner of a larger parallelogram.
- 5
A number representing the increment between two figurate numbers (“numbers equal to the numbers of dots in geometric figures formed of dots”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Gnomon in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense object used to tell time by the shadow it casts when the sun shines on it:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does gnomon come from?
Borrowed from French gnomon, or directly from its etymon Latin gnōmōn, or directly from its etymon Ancient Greek γνώμων (gnṓmōn, “discerner, interpreter; carpenter’s square; gnomon of a sundial; (geometry) gnomon”), from γιγνώσκω (gignṓskō, “to be aware of; to perceive; to know”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”); the word is thus related to know. The geometry sense (sense 4) is from the resemblance of the plane figure to a carpenter’s square.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).