DEC

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Dec mean? 

• DEC (noun)
  The noun DEC has 2 senses:

1. the last (12th) month of the year

2. (astronomy) the angular distance of a celestial body north or to the south of the celestial equator; expressed in degrees; used with right ascension to specify positions on the celestial sphere

  Familiarity information: DEC used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEC (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The last (12th) month of the year

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

Dec; December

Hypernyms ("Dec" is a kind of...):

Gregorian calendar month (a month in the Gregorian calendar)

Meronyms (parts of "Dec"):

December 31; New Year's Eve (the last day of the year)

Christmas; Christmas Day; Dec 25; Xmas (a Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Christ; a quarter day in England, Wales, and Ireland)

Christmas; Christmastide; Christmastime; Noel; Yule; Yuletide (period extending from Dec. 24 to Jan. 6)

mid-December (the middle part of December)

Holonyms ("Dec" is a part of...):

Gregorian calendar; New Style calendar (the solar calendar now in general use, introduced by Gregory XIII in 1582 to correct an error in the Julian calendar by suppressing 10 days, making Oct 5 be called Oct 15, and providing that only centenary years divisible by 400 should be leap years; it was adopted by Great Britain and the American colonies in 1752)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(astronomy) the angular distance of a celestial body north or to the south of the celestial equator; expressed in degrees; used with right ascension to specify positions on the celestial sphere

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

celestial latitude; dec; declination

Hypernyms ("dec" is a kind of...):

angular distance (the angular separation between two objects as perceived by an observer)

Domain category:

astronomy; uranology (the branch of physics that studies celestial bodies and the universe as a whole)

 Context examples 

Cassini's imaging cameras acquired these latest views on Dec. 2 and 3, about two days before the first ring-grazing approach to the planet.

(Over Saturn's Turbulent North, NASA)

The spacecraft’s first orbital insertion is scheduled for Dec. 31, and OSIRIS-REx will remain in orbit until mid-February 2019, when it exits to initiate another series of flybys for the next survey phase.

(NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Discovers Water on Asteroid, NASA)

Bennu is the target of NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission, which began orbiting the asteroid on Dec. 31.

(NASA Mission Reveals Asteroid Has Big Surprises, NASA)

It is characterized by predisposition to cancer, immunodeficiency, high sensitivity to UV and genomic instability of somatic cells. (Oncogene 2001 Dec 13;20(57):8276-80)

(Bloom syndrome, NCI Thesaurus)

During the period of Dec. 15, 2016 to March 4, the Kepler spacecraft, operating as the K2 mission, collected data on the star's minuscule changes in brightness due to transiting planets.

(NASA's Kepler Provides Another Peek at Ultra-cool Neighbor, NASA)

A satellite developed by junior high school children from Ubatuba, São Paulo state, was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) from Tanegashima Space Center, Japan, on Friday (Dec. 9).

(Satellite made by Brazilian junior high students launched in Japan, Agência Brasil)

During the period of Dec. 15, 2016 and March 4, the Kepler spacecraft, operating as the K2 mission, observed TRAPPIST-1 for 74 days.

(Light From An Ultra-Cool Neighbor, NASA)

They show that the lander survived its Dec. 25, 2003, touchdown enough to at least partially deploy its solar arrays.

('Lost' 2003 Mars Lander Found by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, NASA)

They were taken between Nov. 24 and Dec. 1, when the mission team was out for the Thanksgiving holiday.

(Curiosity Mars Rover Snaps Its Highest-Resolution Panorama Yet, NASA)

InSight's seismometer, which the lander placed on the planet's surface on Dec. 19, 2018, will enable scientists to gather similar data about Mars.

(NASA's InSight Detects First Likely 'Quake' on Mars, NASA)