sextant

From Latin sextāns.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛk.stənt/
• Rhymes: -ɛkstənt

sextant (plural sextants)

1. (nautical) A navigational device for deriving angular distances between objects so as to determine latitude and longitude.
   • 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., OCLC 18478577; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, volume 1, New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, OCLC 988016180:

     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.

• octant
• quadrant
• Wikipedia article on Sextant

• exstant

sextant m

1. sextant

• IPA^(key): /sɛk.stɑ̃/

• Audio

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sextant f (plural sextants)

1. sextant

• “sextant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From French sextant.

sextant m (plural sextanți)

1. sextant