a geometric solid consisting of a plane base bounded by a closed curve, often a circle or an ellipse, every point of which is joined to a fixed point, the vertex, lying outside the plane of the base. A right circular cone has a vertex perpendicularly above or below the centre of a circular base. Volume of a cone: 1⁄3πr2h, where r is the radius of the base and h is the height of the cone
b.
a geometric surface formed by a line rotating about the vertex and connecting the peripheries of two closed plane bases, usually circular or elliptical, above and below the vertex
See also conic section
2.
anything that tapers from a circular section to a point, such as a wafer shell used to contain ice cream
3.
a.
the reproductive body of conifers and related plants, made up of overlapping scales, esp the mature female cone, whose scales each bear a seed
b.
a similar structure in horsetails, club mosses, etc
Technical name: strobilus
4.
a small cone-shaped bollard used as a temporary traffic marker on roads
5. Also called: retinal cone
any one of the cone-shaped cells in the retina of the eye, sensitive to colour and bright light
verb
6. (transitive)
to shape like a cone or part of a cone
Word origin
C16: from Latin cōnus, from Greek kōnus pine cone, geometrical cone
Examples of 'retinal cone' in a sentence
retinal cone
His is a rare condition, passed down to males via the female line, in which the eye is extremely deficient in red retinal cones.