Make Your Point > Archived Issues > QUINCUNX
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pronounce
QUINCUNX:
Say it "KWIN kunks."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
In Latin, quinque means "five," and quintus means "fifth."
Those Latin bits are easy for us to spot in words like quintuple, quintillion, and Quinceañera (the celebration of a fifteenth birthday).
And quintessential, which, as you'll recall, means "purest, most typical."
So wait: what does quintessential have to do with a fifth thing?
Can you recall? If you're not sure, the answer is here, near the top of the page. Hint: "Fire, water, earth, air, ..."
definition:
If you're familiar with Latin, you'll notice how "quincunx" literally means "five-twelfths." That's because, originally, a quincunx was an ancient Roman coin worth 5/12ths of a libra.
But you can probably forget about the "12ths" bit, because today we most often use "quincunx" to describe arrangements of five things:
With thanks to Wikipedia for the images, above we have a quincunx of pips on a die, a quincunx of trees in a garden, and a quincunx of stars on the flag of the Solomon Islands.
As you can see, a quincunx is an arrangement of five things, with one at each corner of a square or rectangle, and one in the middle.
And if you want to get figurative, a quincunx is any group of five things that seem to be arranged in a neat, orderly way.
"Quincunx" also has a specific meaning in astrology. When two planetary bodies are positioned, angularly, at 150 degrees apart, they've formed a quincunx. As you probably noticed, 150 degrees is five-twelfths of a circle (360 degrees):
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
It's a noun, usually the countable kind: "a quincunx of marbles," "they clustered into a quincunx."
Occasionally, it's an uncountable noun: "they gathered in quincunx," "let's plant these trees in quincunx."
Other forms: quincunxes, quincuncial (say this either "kwin KUNK shull" or "kwin KUN shull"), quincuncially.
how to use it:
"Quincunx" is one of those wacky little words that helps you get ultra-precise. Sure, you might never have a reason to use it, but why not know it anyway?
Talk about a quincunx of items, usually concrete ones: "a quincunx of trees," "set up the game board by arranging these five card decks in a quincunx."
But you can get abstract, too. If you're talking about any group of five things that, together, seem to be arranged in a very orderly way, you can call them a quincunx: "a quincunx of projects," "a quincunx of advantages," "a quincunx of comic book heroes."
examples:
"Pruned to the bone, the dark vine-shoots stuck out of the snow in rows of skeleton fists which shrank to quincunxes of black commas along the snow-covered contour-lines of the vineyards as they climbed..."
— Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time of Gifts, 1977
"He is perfectly happy scoring no points if his play is facilitating game-winning buckets for his team-mates... With four superstars orbiting around his gravitational pull, he is the middle dot on the dice, the centre of the quincunx."
— Ben Reynolds, Skysports, 19 May 2019
has this page helped you understand "quincunx"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "quincunx" without saying "clump of five things" or "four corner ones and a center one."
try it out:
If you lay things out in repeating or overlapping quincunxes, your pattern looks like a lattice:
Can you spot anything in your home, garden, or workspace that follows this kind of quincuncial pattern? Or, have you ever arranged items this way: quincuncially? If not, where might be a good place to try it?
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
This month, our game is "Caption These!"
In each issue this month, caption the images below (A, B, and C) by matching them to the vocabulary words they illustrate (1, 2, and 3). Need a closer look? Give the images a click. And, if you can, explain the exact meaning of each word. I'll share the answers in the following issue. Good luck!
From the previous issue:
Answers:
A: shoehorn, B: tailspin, C: nettle.
(To review a word, give it a click.)
Try these today:
1: oblique
2: obtuse
3: acute
review this word:
A. STAR.
B. HEAP.
C. SLICE.
2. Stare at a _____ long enough, and its quincunxes imprint on your retinas.
A. bird cage
B. rose bush
C. chess board
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
In Latin, quinque means "five," and quintus means "fifth."
If you're familiar with Latin, you'll notice how "quincunx" literally means "five-twelfths." That's because, originally, a quincunx was an ancient Roman coin worth 5/12ths of a libra.
Part of speech:
"Quincunx" is one of those wacky little words that helps you get ultra-precise. Sure, you might never have a reason to use it, but why not know it anyway?
"Pruned to the bone, the dark vine-shoots stuck out of the snow in rows of skeleton fists which shrank to quincunxes of black commas along the snow-covered contour-lines of the vineyards as they climbed..."
Explain the meaning of "quincunx" without saying "clump of five things" or "four corner ones and a center one."
If you lay things out in repeating or overlapping quincunxes, your pattern looks like a lattice:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
1: oblique
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