Word of the Day

: December 20, 2017

recumbent

adjective rih-KUM-bunt

What It Means

1 a : suggestive of repose : leaning, resting

b : lying down

2 : representing a person lying down

3 : (of a bicycle) having the seat positioned so that the rider's legs are extended horizontally forward to the pedals and the body is reclined

recumbent in Context

When Bert glanced at his father's recumbent form in the armchair, he immediately realized that he could use a good nap himself.

"The exhibit includes a limestone statue of a recumbent lion carved between 305 and 30 BCE." — Amy McRary, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, 29 Jan. 2017

Did You Know?

If you're ready to take your vocabulary lying down, you'll want to be familiar with the synonyms recumbent, prone, supine, and prostrate, all of which mean "lying down." Recumbent, which derives from the Latin prefix re- and the verb cumbere, meaning "to lie down," focuses on the posture or position native to sleeping or resting. Prone describes someone who is lying facedown, as, for example, in doing push-ups. Supine flips it over, suggesting the position of someone lying inert on the back, while prostrate implies a full-scale physical collapse or submission, regardless of the exact position of the defeated body. Recumbent, dating from 17th century, is the newest of the four words; the others all entered English before the 16th century.