Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Wedge-shaped.
- adjective Of or relating to any of various related writing systems of the ancient Near East having characters formed by the arrangement of small wedge-shaped elements and used to write Sumerian, Akkadian, Elamite, Hittite, Old Persian, and other languages.
- adjective Relating to, composed in, or using such characters.
- adjective Anatomy Of, relating to, or being a wedge-shaped bone or cartilage.
- noun Cuneiform writing.
- noun Anatomy A wedge-shaped bone, especially one of three such bones in the tarsus of the foot.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Having the shape or form of a wedge; cuneate.
- In entomology, said of parts or joints which are attached by a thin but broad base, and thicken gradually to a suddenly truncated apex, In anatomy, applied to certain wedge-shaped carpal and tarsal bones. See phrases below.
- Occupied with or versed in the wedge-shaped characters, or the inscriptions written in them: as, “a cuneiform scholar,”
- noun A cuneiform bone: as, the three cuneiforms of the foot.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Wedge-shaped; ; -- especially applied to the wedge-shaped or arrowheaded characters of ancient Persian and Assyrian inscriptions. See
arrowheaded . - adjective Pertaining to, or versed in, the ancient wedge-shaped characters, or the inscriptions in them.
- noun The wedge-shaped characters used in ancient Persian and Assyrian inscriptions.
- noun One of the three tarsal bones supporting the first, second third metatarsals. They are usually designated as external, middle, and internal, or
ectocuniform ,mesocuniform , andentocuniform , respectively. - noun One of the carpal bones usually articulating with the ulna; -- called also
pyramidal andulnare .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Having the form of a
wedge ; wedge-shaped. - adjective Written in the
cuneiform writing system. - adjective Relating to, or versed in, the ancient cuneiform writing system or its
inscriptions . - noun An ancient
Mesopotamian writing system, adapted within several language families, originating aspictograms inSumer around the 30th century BC, evolving into more abstract and characteristic wedge shapes formed by a blunt reedstylus on clay tablets. - noun anatomy A wedge-shaped bone, especially a
cuneiform bone .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective shaped like a wedge
- noun an ancient wedge-shaped script used in Mesopotamia and Persia
- adjective of or relating to the tarsal bones (or other wedge-shaped bones)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Round-stylus and sharp-stylus writing was gradually replaced by writing using a wedge-shaped stylus (hence the term cuneiform), at first only for logograms, but evolved to include phonetic elements by the
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Round-stylus and sharp-stylus writing was gradually replaced by writing using a wedge-shaped stylus (hence the term cuneiform), at first only for logograms, but evolved to include phonetic elements by the
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(On the "Cyrus Cylinder," the Persian King inscribed in cuneiform the world's first known "Charter of Human Rights.")
Richard C. Morais: What Steve Forbes's Books Teach Us Richard C. Morais 2010
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(On the "Cyrus Cylinder," the Persian King inscribed in cuneiform the world's first known "Charter of Human Rights.")
Richard C. Morais: What Steve Forbes's Books Teach Us Richard C. Morais 2010
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(On the "Cyrus Cylinder," the Persian King inscribed in cuneiform the world's first known "Charter of Human Rights.")
Richard C. Morais: What Steve Forbes's Books Teach Us Richard C. Morais 2010
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Insist on keeping your secret cookie recipes written in cuneiform?
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(On the "Cyrus Cylinder," the Persian King inscribed in cuneiform the world's first known "Charter of Human Rights.")
Richard C. Morais: What Steve Forbes's Books Teach Us Richard C. Morais 2010
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The shape of these signs is that of a wedge, hence the name cuneiform (from the Latin cuneus, "a wedge").
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 2: Assizes-Browne 1840-1916 1913
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Nor must we forget the additional testimony of three clay cylinders of Nebuchadnezzar, inscribed in cuneiform characters, and now in the National Egyptian Museum.
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What we call cuneiform is essentially a cursive hand.
Jozwolf commented on the word cuneiform
You can see a wonderful Cuneiform Tag (a receipt for a ewe and a ram) from 2,000 BC at http://www.things-that-count.com/?n=Site.CuneiformTag
April 11, 2014