Hypertext Webster Gateway: "vertex"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Vertex \Ver"tex\, n.; pl. {Vertexes}, L. {Vertices}. [L. vertex,
-icis, a whirl, top of the head, top, summit, from vertere to
turn. See {Verse}, and cf. {Vortex}.]
A turning point; the principal or highest point; top; summit;
crown; apex. Specifically:
(a) (Anat.) The top, or crown, of the head.
(b) (Anat.) The zenith, or the point of the heavens directly
overhead.
(c) (Math.) The point in any figure opposite to, and farthest
from, the base; the terminating point of some particular
line or lines in a figure or a curve; the top, or the
point opposite the base.
Note: The principal vertex of a conic section is, in the
parabola, the vertex of the axis of the curve: in the
ellipse, either extremity of either axis, but usually
the left-hand vertex of the transverse axis; in the
hyperbola, either vertex, but usually the right-hand
vertex of the transverse axis.
{Vertex of a curve} (Math.), the point in which the axis of
the curve intersects it.
{Vertex of an angle} (Math.), the point in which the sides of
the angle meet.
{Vertex of a solid}, or {of a surface of revolution} (Math.),
the point in which the axis pierces the surface.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
vertex
n 1: the point of intersection of lines or the point opposite the
base of a figure
2: the highest point of something [syn: {peak}, {apex}, {acme}]
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