entasis
/ˈɛntəsɪs/
entasis noun: a slight convex curvature introduced into the shaft of a column for aesthetic reasons, or to compensate for the illusion of concavity.
Noun
entasis (countable and uncountable, plural entases)
- A slight convex curvature introduced into the shaft of a column for aesthetic reasons, or to compensate for the illusion of concavity.
- It was simply the curve of the entasis, approximating infinitely near to a catenary or to a very flat hyperbola. He could not definitely say whether it was one or the other, but it was nearer to these curves than to the old-fashioned straight line.1859, Journal of the Society of Arts, volume 7, page 484
- The entasis varies in different temples and is not found in some, as, for instance, the temple of Athena Nike and in the east portico of the Erechtheum.1950, William Bell Dinsmoor, The Architecture of Ancient Greece: An Account of Its Historic Development, →ISBN, page 168
Forms of entasis
| plural | entases |
|---|
Origin of entasis
From Latin entasis, from Ancient Greek ἔντασις (éntasis, “tension, straining”), from ἐντείνω (enteínō, “to stretch or strain tight”).
Questions about entasis
- What does entasis mean?
- Entasis means a slight convex curvature introduced into the shaft of a column for aesthetic reasons, or to compensate for the illusion of concavity.
- What part of speech is entasis?
- Entasis is a noun.
- How do you pronounce entasis?
- Entasis is pronounced /ˈɛntəsɪs/.
- What is the plural of entasis?
- The plural of entasis is entases.
Words near entasis in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: entasis (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “entasis.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/entasis. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.