FULCRUM (fulcra)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: fulcra   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does fulcrum mean? 

• FULCRUM (noun)
  The noun FULCRUM has 1 sense:

1. the pivot about which a lever turns

  Familiarity information: FULCRUM used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FULCRUM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The pivot about which a lever turns

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

pin; pivot (axis consisting of a short shaft that supports something that turns)

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

lever (a rigid bar pivoted about a fulcrum)

 Context examples 

I understood the mechanics of levers; but where was I to get a fulcrum?

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Tree sloths require specialized limb adaptations, reduced body mass, a slow metabolic rate and claws that act like fulcrums — hooks to accommodate the animals' need to hang onto and traverse treetops.

(Putting the sloth in sloths: Arboreal lifestyle drives slow pace, NSF)

'Dos pou sto,' said Archimedes. 'Give me a fulcrum, and I shall move the world!'

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He drew up lists of the most incongruous things and was unhappy until he succeeded in establishing kinship between them all—kinship between love, poetry, earthquake, fire, rattlesnakes, rainbows, precious gems, monstrosities, sunsets, the roaring of lions, illuminating gas, cannibalism, beauty, murder, lovers, fulcrums, and tobacco.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

To do once, is the fulcrum whereby child-brain become man-brain; and until he have the purpose to do more, he continue to do the same again every time, just as he have done before!

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)