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A small circle of the sphere parallel to the horizon; a circle or parallel of altitude. Two stars which have the same almucantar have the same altitude. See Almacantar. [Archaic] Almucanter staff, an ancient instrument, having an arc of fifteen degrees, formerly used at sea to take observations of the sun's amplitude a…

or star, or other celestial object, above the horizon, measured by the arc of a vertical circle intercepted between such point and the horizon. It is either true or apparent; true when measured from the rational or real horizon, apparent when from the sensible or apparent horizon.

A circuit; a winding. Hence: Circuitous way or proceeding; quibble; circumlocution; indirect mode of speech. After many ambages, perspicuously define what this melancholy is. Burton.

Circumlocutory; circuitous. [R.]

Encompassing on all sides; circumfused; investing. "Ambient air." Milton. "Ambient clouds." Pope.

Circuit or compass. His great parts did not live within a small ambit. Milward.

An oval or circular building with rising tiers of seats about an open space called the arena.

A kind of annelid larva having both a dorsal and a ventral circle of special cilia.

The arc of the horizon between the true east or west point and the foot of the vertical circle passing through any star or object.

thern bottle, as the dilated end of a vessel or duct; especially the dilations of the semicircular canals of the ear.

c curves, a class of curves of the fourth degree which have certain peculiar relations to circles; -- sometimes called bicircular quartics. -- Anallagmatic surfaces, a certain class of surfaces of the fourth degree.

A resemblance of relations; an agreement or likeness between things in some circumstances or effects, when the things are otherwise entirely different. Thus, learning enlightens the mind, because it is to the mind what light is to the eye, enabling it to discover things before hidden.

right line falling on another perpendicularly, or an angle of 90º (measured by a quarter circle). -- Solid angle, the figure formed by the meeting of three or more plane angles at one point. -- Spherical angle, one made by the meeting of two arcs of great circles, which mutually cut one another on the surface of a g…

Banded or marked with circles. Annular eclipse (Astron.), an eclipse of the sun in which the moon at the middle of the eclipse conceals the central part of the sun's disk, leaving a complete ring of light around the border.

A circular or ringlike formation; a ring or belt. Nicholson.

A small, flat fillet, encircling a column, etc., used by itself, or with other moldings. It is used, several times repeated, under the Doric capital.

A space contained between the circumferences of two circles, one within the other.

pole; relating to the southern pole or to the region near it, and applied especially to a circle, distant from the pole 23º 28min. Thus we say the antarctic pole, circle, ocean, region, current, etc.

sible magnitude was by astronomers called apparent magnitude. Reid. Apparent horizon, the circle which in a level plain bounds our view, and is formed by the apparent meeting of the earth and heavens, as distinguished from the rational horizon. -- Apparent time. See Time. -- Heir apparent (Law), one whose to an estat…

tar or other luminary after having been invisible or obscured; -- opposed to occultation. Circle of perpetual apparition. See under Circle.