This week’s theme
Eclipse

This week’s words
umbra
occultation
penumbra
umbrageous
totality

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(ah-kuhl-TAY-shuhn)

MEANING:

noun:
1. The state of being hidden or blocked.
2. The passage of a celestial object in front of another, hiding it from view.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin occultare (to conceal), frequentative of occulere (to conceal), from culere (to hide). Earliest documented use: 1453.

USAGE:

“Matt Rinaldi [came to] to Dallas to work at a law firm at about the time when Texas Democrats were sliding into occultation.”
Christopher Hooks; Sinners in the Hands of an Angry GOP; Texas Monthly (Austin); Dec 2023.

“A pair of amateur astronomers were setting their telescopes, hoping to catch an elusive occultation, where for a few seconds, an asteroid too faint to see would block out the light from a star.”
Henry Melton; Lighter Than Air; Wire Rim Books; 2008.

See more usage examples of occultation in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: