sinuous
adjective
Did you know?
Although it probably makes you think more of snakes than head colds, sinuous is etymologically more like sinus than serpent. Sinuous and sinus both derive from the Latin noun sinus, which means "curve, fold, or hollow." Other sinus descendants include insinuate ("to impart or suggest in an artful or indirect way") and two terms you might remember from math class: sine and cosine. In English, sinus is the oldest of these words; it entered the language in the 1400s. Insinuate appeared next, in the early 1500s, and was followed by sinuous and sine in the latter half of the 1500s, and cosine in the 1600s. Serpent, by the way, entered English in the 13th century and comes from the Latin verb serpere, meaning "to creep."
Synonyms
Examples of sinuous in a Sentence
Megan Schaltegger, People.com, 23 Jan. 2025
To cushion their sinuous eucalyptus forms, the duo came up with their own spin on traditional Banarasi fabric: an archival herringbone motif overlaid with numerical zeros that nod to Brahmagupta, the Hindu mathematician who developed the concept of nothingness in 628 AD.
—Mel Studach, Architectural Digest, 21 Jan. 2025
The suit featured a double-breasted blazer with sinuous lapels, a pocket square and black buttons on either side of the front placket.
—Julia Teti, WWD, 14 Jan. 2025
Patinir’s painterly eye knows well the sinuous gradations that can be drawn from a hot monochrome.
—Teju Cole, The New Yorker, 10 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Sinuous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sinuous. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.
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