Illustration of cone
- 1 Sitka spruce
- 2 Japanese cedar
- 3 giant sequoia
- 4 white spruce
- 5 redwood
- 6 lodgepole pine
- 7 Douglas fir
- 8 bald cypress
- 9 jack pine
1
a
: a solid generated by rotating a right triangle about one of its legs
called also right circular cone
b
: a solid bounded by a circular or other closed plane base and the surface formed by line segments joining every point of the boundary of the base to a common vertex see Volume Formulas Table
c
: a surface traced by a moving straight line passing through a fixed vertex
2
a
: a mass of ovule-bearing or pollen-bearing scales or bracts in most conifers or in cycads that are arranged usually on a somewhat elongated axis
b
: any of several flower or fruit clusters suggesting a cone
3
: something that resembles a cone in shape: such as
a
: any of the conical photosensitive receptor cells of the vertebrate retina that function in color vision compare rod sense 3
b
: any of a family (Conidae) of tropical marine gastropod mollusks that inject their prey with a potent toxin
c
: the apex of a volcano
d
: a crisp usually cone-shaped wafer for holding ice cream
coned; coning
1
: to make cone-shaped
2
: to bevel like the slanting surface of a cone
cone a tire
Cite this Entry
“Cone.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cone. Accessed 7 Sep. 2026.
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