or antennas
Erich Segal
Did you know?
The Latin word antenna meant “sail yard,” which is the long spar that supports and spreads the sail on a sailing vessel. The Greek word for a sail yard was keraia, but that was only one meaning of this word. The primary meaning was “horn.” The philosopher Aristotle used keraiai to describe the feelers of insects, probably because of their resemblance to the horns of some larger animals. In a Latin translation of Aristotle’s work made during the Renaissance, the word antennae was used for Greek keraiai. In English we still use antennae for insects’ feelers. And now we also use antenna for the metal rods that pick up radio waves and seem to “feel the air” like the antennae of an insect.
Examples of antenna in a Sentence
Tereza Pultarova, Space.com, 31 Mar. 2025
Old-fashioned antennas for TVs were highly directional and had to be set up pointing toward the transmitter; the direction in which the antenna was deaf to the signal was called a null.
—David Hambling, Forbes.com, 27 Mar. 2025
By comparing the data from each antenna, the team was able to reconstruct a three-dimensional image of the lightning, mapping out the path of the bolts.
—Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 21 Mar. 2025
The decline of the bundle has had a deleterious downstream impact on broadcast TV viewing, as only 4% of U.S. homes receive their TV signals exclusively via an antenna/over-the-air setup.
—Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 1 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for antenna
Cite this Entry
“Antenna.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antenna. Accessed 17 Apr. 2025.
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antenna
noun
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