different between sextant vs macrometer

English

Etymology

From Latin sext?ns.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s?kst?nt/

Noun

sextant (plural sextants)

1. (nautical) A navigational device for deriving angular distances between objects so as to determine latitude and longitude.
   • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter IV

     For several days things went along in about the same course. I took our position every morning with my crude sextant; but the results were always most unsatisfactory. They always showed a considerable westing when I knew that we had been sailing due north. I blamed my crude instrument, and kept on.

2. (geometry) One sixth of a circle or disc; a sector with an angle of 60°.
3. (dentistry) One of six groups of adjacent teeth, excluding the wisdom teeth. The front sextants go from canine to canine, and there are sextants on the right and left of these. See w:Periodontal examination.

Translations

See also

• octant
• quadrant
• Wikipedia article on Sextant

Anagrams

• exstant

Czech

Noun

sextant m

1. sextant

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s?k.st??/

Noun

sextant f (plural sextants)

1. sextant

Further reading

• “sextant” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Romanian

Etymology

From French sextant.

Noun

sextant m (plural sextan?i)

1. sextant

Declension

English

Etymology

macro- +? -meter

Noun

macrometer (plural macrometers)

1. An instrument for determining the size or distance of inaccessible objects by means of two reflectors on a common sextant

Related terms

• macrometric