pendentive

[ pen-den-tiv ]

noun

, Architecture.

1. any of several spandrels, in the form of spherical triangles, forming a transition between the circular plan of a dome and the polygonal plan of the supporting masonry.
2. any of several masonry devices, as squinches or trompes, for forming a transition between a circular or polygonal construction, as a dome or lantern, and supporting masonry of a different plan.

adjective

1. functioning as, or substituting for, a pendentive:

   pendentive corbeling.

pendentive

/ pɛnˈdɛntɪv /

noun

1. any of four triangular sections of vaulting with concave sides, positioned at a corner of a rectangular space to support a circular or polygonal dome

Word History and Origins

Origin of pendentive¹

1720–30; pendent + -ive, modeled on French pendentif

Word History and Origins

Origin of pendentive¹

C18: from French pendentif, from Latin pendens hanging, from pendere to hang

Example Sentences

For Beckwourth, 1980, presents a kind of solid wooden hogan with an ovoid top plastered in cracked mud, recalling both the primitive hut and the origins of the pendentive dome.

From Time Magazine Archive

Stalactite work is employed in the pendentive of the smaller apses and in the capitals of the columns carrying the pointed arches.

From Project Gutenberg

The original ceiling, or rather hollow cone, was of the same description as the existing stalactite, or pendentive, ceilings of the Hall of "the Abencerrages," of "Justice," and of "the two Sisters;" but larger and finer.

From Project Gutenberg

Above the niche in the sketch appears the ingenious pendentive impost from which spring the great arches carried by the piers, with the characteristic ingrailed fringe work which was almost always retained even, as we see at Seville, in the latest Renaissance Mudejar work.

From Project Gutenberg

With the aid of these three varieties of vaulting, that were occasionally combined with consummate skill, the Romans were able to roof in large or small circular spaces, and in some few cases, as in the Baths of Caracalla at Rome, they even to a certain extent anticipated the clever contrivance known as the pendentive, a triangular piece of vaulting springing from the corners of a right-angled enclosure, that was later brought to such perfection in Byzantine architecture.

From Project Gutenberg