Meaning of Penumbra | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A partially shaded area around the edges of a shadow, especially an eclipse.
2. A region around the edge of a sunspot, darker than the sun's surface but lighter than the middle of the sunspot.
3. An area of uncertainty or intermediacy between two mutually exclusive states or categories.
   figuratively
4. An area that lies on the edge of something; a fringe.
   figuratively
5. Something related to, connected to, and implied by, the existence of something else that is necessary for the second thing to be full and complete in its essential aspects.
6. A region of the brain that has lost only some of its blood supply, and retains structural integrity but has lost function.

Equivalents

Examples

“[A]ny penumbral fringe that may be detected cannot be well distinguished from the effects of the true penumbræ; […]”

“The other places see⟳ the penumbra of the moon's shadow fall⟳ on the earth, so the eclipse is partial, and part of the sun's disc is still visible.”

“In the boiling temperature of 119 ° F – the hottest they had experienced so far – they watched as the penumbra of Venus blurred its outline at the precise moment the disc crossed the sun.”

“The part of the moon that remains in the penumbra receives some direct⟳ sunlight, and the glare is usually great enough to prevent⟳ your seeing the faint coppery glow of the part of the moon in the umbra.”

“The atmosphere was very clear, evidenced by the steadiness with which the mottling of the sun’s surface and the penumbræ of several spots were visible.”

“The velocities found in the penumbræ of spots generally increase⟳ with the distance from the centre of radiation, the motion being zero at some point⟳ in the umbra, and accelerating outwards.”

“These firms or businesses are not illegal in the strict sense⟳, but there is a shadowy penumbra within which they live⟳, and it is often convenient for the government to look⟳ the other way.”

“[…] God chose to descend into the realm of human imperfection, where the light⟳ of truth is spare⟳ and must exist⟳ in the penumbra of partial knowledge mixed with partial ignorance.”

“Unlike some of his contemporaries Parkes never implied that the Irish were close⟳, in the racial hierarchy, to black, condemned to some racial penumbra, between black and white; but nor, given Catholic exclusion from the given traditions of his native radicalism, were the Irish white in the same way that he was.”

“Thank⟳ God we are not all cowards, we have⟳ not all a low ambition, which would make⟳ men shades, pœnumbræ^([sic]) of their fellows.”

“Whilst the orthodox, de-charismatized churches steadily lose⟳ influence⟳ and support⟳ and the new cults develop⟳, in the religious penumbra there have⟳ persisted, during the last⟳ century, echoes of charisma.”

“But for all the expansionist energy of a metro area that sprawls from Wisconsin to Indiana (total population: 7.2 million), downtown Chicago and its penumbra also stand⟳ rejuvenated.”

“Some are accounts of the latest advances, but too many are in that weary penumbra of science inhabited by sociologists, who wander⟳ like⟳ children in a toyshop, playing with devices they scarcely understand⟳.”

“The foregoing [United States Supreme Court] cases suggest⟳ that specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights have⟳ penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help⟳ give⟳ them life and substance.”

CEFR level