Meaning of Sextant | Babel Free

Definitions

1. The constellation Sextans.
2. A navigational device for deriving angular distances between objects so as to determine latitude and longitude.
3. One sixth of a circle or disc; a sector with an angle of 60°.
4. One of six groups of adjacent teeth, excluding the wisdom teeth.
5. A radial cell division of segments in three series, a sixth part of the original.

Equivalents

Examples

“[…] I can do more with a Quadrant, Sextant or Octant, of 1 foot Radius, furniſhed with Teleſcopical Sights and Screws, then ^([sic]) can poſſibly be done with any other Inſtrument, furniſhed only with Common Sights, though 10, 20, 30, nay threeſcore foot Radius; […]”

“I took our position every morning with my crude sextant; but the results were always most unsatisfactory.”

“Moskowitz and Devereux have designed a hyperaccurate sextant for interstellar navigation based upon the design of the sextant used by the Apollo astronauts.”

CEFR level