Syene

American

[sahy-ee-nee] / saɪˈi ni /

noun

ancient name of Aswan.

Syene British

/ saɪˈiːnɪ /

noun

transliteration of the Ancient Greek name for Aswan

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

That means, in effect, that at Alexandria, Earth’s surface has curved away from Syene by 7° of 360°, or 1/50 of a full circle.

From Textbooks • Oct. 13, 2016

Alexandria had been measured to be 5000 stadia north of Syene.

From Textbooks • Oct. 13, 2016

This indicated that the Sun was directly over the well—meaning that Syene was on a direct line from the center of Earth to the Sun.

From Textbooks • Oct. 13, 2016

He also had a figure for the distance between Syene and Alexandria: 5,000 stadia.

From Time Magazine Archive

Consider a map of ancient Egypt with two vertical sticks of equal length, one stuck in Alexandria, the other in Syene.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023