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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

arc.

THE SHORT MEANING

A curve; a continuous part of a circle.

Ideas & craft

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɑːk/Received-Pronunciation/ɑɹk/General-American
  1. That part of a circle which a heavenly body appears to pass through as it moves above and below the horizon.

  2. A continuous part of the circumference of a circle (circular arc) or of another curve.

  3. A curve, in general.

    Swing it from side to side in a high arc overhead.
    an arc of pupils around their teacher.
  4. A band contained within parallel curves, or something of that shape.

  5. A flow of current across an insulating medium; especially a hot, luminous discharge either between two electrodes or as lightning.

  6. Ellipsis of story arc.

    abbreviation · alt-of · ellipsis
  7. Ellipsis of story arc. A period or phase in a person's life.

    Internet · broadly
    I'm hitting the gym three times a week or more at the moment. I'm in my gym bro arc.
    I miss my drawing arc. I feel like I was much more creative back then.
  8. A continuous mapping from a real interval (typically [0, 1]) into a space.

  9. A directed edge.

  10. The three-point line.

    slang
  11. An arclight.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂erkʷ- Proto-Indo-European *h₂erkʷos Proto-Italic *arkuos Latin arcus Old French arcbor. Middle English ark English arc Inherited from Middle English ark, from Old French arc, from Latin arcus (“a bow, arc, arch”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂erkʷos (“bow, arrow”). Doublet of arch, arco, and arrow.

verb/ɑːk/Received-Pronunciation/ɑɹk/General-American
  1. To move following a curved path.

    ambitransitive
  2. To shape into an arc; to hold in the form of an arc.

    transitive
  3. To form an electrical arc.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂erkʷ- Proto-Indo-European *h₂erkʷos Proto-Italic *arkuos Latin arcus Old French arcbor. Middle English ark English arc Inherited from Middle English ark, from Old French arc, from Latin arcus (“a bow, arc, arch”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂erkʷos (“bow, arrow”). Doublet of arch, arco, and arrow.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

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Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.