different between prominence vs zenith

English

Etymology

From obsolete French prominence (compare proéminence), from Latin prominentia.

Noun

prominence (countable and uncountable, plural prominences)

1. The state of being prominent: widely known or eminent.

   • “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”

2. Relative importance.
3. A bulge: something that bulges out or is protuberant or projects from a form.
4. (topography) Autonomous height; relative height or prime factor; a concept used in the categorization of hills and mountains.

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English cenyth, from Medieval Latin cenit, from Arabic ?????? (samt, “direction, path”), from the fuller form ????? ?????????? (samt ar-ra?s, “direction of the head”). The -ni- for -m- is sometimes thought to be due to a misreading of the three strokes, which is plausible, though it could be a mere phonetic approximation.

Pronunciation

• (UK, General Australian) IPA^(key): /?z?n.??/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?zi.n??/

Noun

zenith (plural zeniths)

1. (astronomy) The point in the sky vertically above a given position or observer; the point in the celestial sphere opposite the nadir.

   Antonyms: nadir, perigee

   • 1638 Herbert, Sir Thomas Some years travels into divers parts of Asia and Afrique

   • 1671–1693: Rev. Thomas Jolly, private notebook; printed in: 1895, Henry Fishwick (editor), The Note Book of the Rev. Thomas Jolly: A.D. 1671–1693. Extracts from the Church Books of Altham and Wymondhouses, 1649–1725. And an Account of the Jolly Family of Standish, Gorton, and Altham, page 44

   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1943, Chapter XI, p. 180, [1]

2. (astronomy) The highest point in the sky reached by a celestial body.
   • 1719- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

   • 1920, Peter B. Kyne, The Understanding Heart, Chapter II:

3. (by extension) Highest point or state; peak.

   Synonyms: acme, apogee, culmination, pinnacle

Antonyms

• antizenith

Derived terms

Related terms

• azimuth, nadir

Translations

Further reading

• zenith on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Heintz, Hintze