umbra

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: um=bra

CIDE DICTIONARY

umbra, n. [L., a shadow.].

•  The conical shadow projected from a planet or satellite, on the side opposite to the sun, within which a spectator could see no portion of the sun's disk; -- used in contradistinction from penumbra. See Penumbra.  [1913 Webster]
•  Any one of several species of sciænoid food fishes of the genus Umbrina, especially the Mediterranean species (Umbrina cirrhosa), which is highly esteemed as a market fish; -- called also ombre, and umbrine.  [1913 Webster]

Umbra tree (Bot.), a tree (Phytolacca dioica) of the same genus as pokeweed. It is native of South America, but is now grown in southern Europe. It has large dark leaves, and a somber aspect. The juice of its berries is used for coloring wine. J. Smith (Dict. Econ. Plants).

OXFORD DICTIONARY

umbra, n. (pl. umbras or umbrae) Astron.
1 a total shadow usu. cast on the earth by the moon during a solar eclipse.
2 the dark central part of a sunspot (cf. PENUMBRA).

Derivative

umbral adj.

Etymology

L, = shade

THESAURUS

umbra

adumbration, dark shade, eidolon, ghost, gloom, haunt, mere shadow, penumbra, phantasm, phantom, revenant, shade, shadiness, shadow, shadows numberless, silhouette, skiagram, skiagraph, spook, umbrage, umbrageousness

ROGET THESAURUS

umbra

Darkness

N darkness, absence of light, blackness, obscurity, gloom, murk, dusk, Cimmerian darkness, Stygian darkness, Egyptian darkness, night, midnight, dead of night, witching hour of night, witching time of night, blind man's holiday, darkness visible, darkness that can be felt, palpable obscure, Erebus, the jaws of darkness, sablevested night, shade, shadow, umbra, penumbra, sciagraphy, obscuration, occultation, adumbration, obumbration, obtenebration, offuscation, caligation, extinction, eclipse, total eclipse, gathering of the clouds, shading, distribution of shade, chiaroscuro, noctivagation, black body, hohlraum, black hole, dark star, dark matter, cold dark matter, dark, darksome, darkling, obscure, tenebrious, sombrous, pitch dark, pitchy, pitch black, caliginous, black, sunless, lightless &c (sun) (light), somber, dusky, unilluminated &c (illuminate), nocturnal, dingy, lurid, gloomy, murky, murksome, shady, umbrageous, overcast, cloudy, darkened, dark as pitch, dark as a pit, dark as Erebus, benighted, noctivagant, noctivagous, in the dark, in the shade, brief as the lightning in the collied night, eldest Night and Chaos, ancestors of Nature, the blackness of the noonday night, the prayer of Ajax was for light.