nadir

 

From Medieval Latin nadir, from Arabic نَظِير السَّمْت (naẓīr as-samt), composed of نَظِير (naẓīr, “counterpart, corresponding to”) and السَّمْت (as-samt, “the zenith”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈneɪˌdɪə(ɹ)/, /ˈnæd.ɪə(ɹ)/, /ˈneɪ.də(ɹ)/, /neɪˈdɪə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈneɪˌdɪɚ/, /ˈneɪ.dɚ/, /neɪˈdɪɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪdə(ɹ), -ɪə(ɹ)

nadir (plural nadirs)

1. The point of the celestial sphere, directly opposite the zenith; inferior pole of the horizon; point of the celestial sphere directly under the place of observation.

   Synonym: antizenith

   Antonym: zenith

   • 1638, Sir Thomas Herbert, Some years travels into divers parts of Asia and Afrique:

     […] when we are Nadyr to the Sunne, we have no ſhadow […]

2. (figuratively) The lowest point; time of greatest depression.

   Synonyms: lowest ebb, slough of despond, trough, bathos

   Antonyms: height, peak

   Near-synonym: dead

   • 1837, Henry Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries:

     […] the seventh century is the nadir of the human mind in Europe […]

   • 1950, Elizabeth Janeway, edited by Helen Hull, The Writer’s Book:

     In this nadir of poetic repute, when the only verse that most people read from one year’s end to the next is what appears on greetings cards, it is well for us to stop and consider our poets.

   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 175:

     The myth describes the dangerous moment of the nadir, the dead of winter, the moment when it is not known whether the world will be re-created and another cycle will bring on another spring.

3. (astronomy) The axis of a projected conical shadow; the direction of the force of gravity at a location; down.

   Synonym: down

   The nadir of the sun is the axis of the shadow projected by the Earth.

4. (beekeeping, archaic) An empty box added beneath a full one in a beehive to give the colony more room to expand or store honey.

   Antonyms: duplet, super

• azimuth, zenith - (both from السَّمْتُ (as-samtu)).

nadir (third-person singular simple present nadirs, present participle nadiring, simple past and past participle nadired)

1. (transitive, beekeeping) To extend (a beehive) by adding an empty box at the base.

• Henry Taylor (1860) The Beekeepers Manual, page 24

•   Nadir (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Darin, Drain, Drina, Indra, Nardi, Ndari, Radin, dinar, drain, ranid

Borrowed from Arabic نَادِر (nādir).

• IPA^(key): [nɑːˈdiɾ]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: na‧dir

nadir (comparative daha nadir, superlative ən nadir)

1. rare

   nadir tapıntı ― a rare discovery

   nadir hallarda ― in rare cases, rarely

 

French Wikipedia has an article on:

nadir

Wikipedia ^fr

As for the English word.

• IPA^(key): /na.diʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

nadir m (plural nadirs)

1. (astronomy) nadir

   Antonym: zénith

• “nadir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• radin

 

Galician Wikipedia has an article on:

nadir

Wikipedia ^gl

nadir m (plural nadires)

1. nadir (point of the celestial sphere directly under the place where the observer stands)

• “nadir”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2024

 

Italian Wikipedia has an article on:

nadir

Wikipedia ^it

From Medieval Latin nadir, from Arabic نَظِير السَّمْت (naẓīr as-samt), composed of نَظِير (naẓīr, “counterpart, corresponding to”) and السَّمْت (as-samt, “the zenith”).

• IPA^(key): /naˈdir/
• Rhymes: -ir
• Hyphenation: na‧dìr

nadir m

1. (astronomy) nadir

   Antonym: zenit

• Randi, nardi

 

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:

nadir

Wikipedia ^pl

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin nadir, from Arabic نَظِير (naẓīr).

• IPA^(key): /ˈna.dir/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -adir
• Syllabification: na‧dir

nadir m inan

1. (astronomy) nadir (axis of projected conical shadow)

   Synonym: perygeum

   Antonym: zenit

• nadir in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• nadir in Polish dictionaries at PWN

 

Portuguese Wikipedia has an article on:

nadir

Wikipedia ^pt

• Hyphenation: na‧dir

nadir m (plural nadires)

1. nadir (point of the celestial sphere directly under the place where the observer stands)
2. (figuratively) nadir (the lowest point)

 

Romanian Wikipedia has an article on:

nadir

Wikipedia ^ro

Borrowed from French nadir.

• IPA^(key): /naˈdir/

nadir n (uncountable)

1. nadir

• nadir in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

• IPA^(key): /naˈdiɾ/ [naˈð̞iɾ]
• Rhymes: -iɾ
• Syllabification: na‧dir

nadir m (plural nadires)

1. nadir (point of the celestial sphere directly under the place where the observer stands)

• “nadir”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28

Inherited from Ottoman Turkish نادر (nadir), from Arabic نَادِر (nādir).

• IPA^(key): [naːˈdiɾ]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: na‧dir

nadir

1. rare

   Synonym: ender

   Antonym: yaygın