Gibbous

 WORD OF THE DAY

gibbous / adjective / JIB-us

Definition
1a: marked by convexity or swelling
1b: of the moon or a planet
1c: seen with more than half but not all of the apparent disk illuminated
2a: having a hump
2b: humpbacked

Examples
"Eventually, we lay our heads down on our pillows beneath a clear sky (no tent required) and a bright gibbous moon that left the canyon well illuminated. I never even unpacked a flashlight."
— David Courtney, Texas Monthly, July 2022

Tonight the waxing gibbous Moon will be close to Antares, the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius.
— Jamie Carter, Forbes, 3 July 2022

Did You Know?
The adjective gibbous has its origins in the Latin noun gibbus, meaning "hump."
It was adopted into Middle English to describe rounded, convex things.
While it has been used to describe the rounded body parts of humans and animals (such as the back of a camel) and to describe the shape of certain flowers (such as snapdragons), the term is most often used to describe the moon: a gibbous moon is one that is between half full and full.