total eclipse


noun
  1. an eclipse in which the surface of the eclipsed body is completely obscured.

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Origin of total eclipse

1
First recorded in 1665–75

Words Nearby total eclipse

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use total eclipse in a sentence

  • A partial eclipse of the sun will always occur about a fortnight before or after a total eclipse of the moon.

    A Text-Book of Astronomy | George C. Comstock
  • Such an eclipse is called annular, as shown in fig. 3; when this happens, there can be no total eclipse anywhere.

  • On the 24th of June, the little fleet shot the Falls of the Ohio amid the darkness of a total eclipse of the sun.

  • Her honeymoon was not only waning, but going into a total eclipse.

    Miss Billy Married | Eleanor H. Porter

British Dictionary definitions for total eclipse

total eclipse

noun
  1. an eclipse as seen from a particular area of the earth's surface where the eclipsed body is completely hidden: Compare annular eclipse, partial eclipse

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

Scientific definitions for total eclipse

total eclipse

[ tōtl ]


  1. An eclipse in which the entire surface of a celestial object is obscured. See more at eclipse.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.