gibbous means curved or bulged outward.
gibbous is pronounced /ˈɡɪbəs/.
Why “gibbous” is a great word
Characterized by a convex or bulging shape, as in the phase of the moon when more than half but not all of its disc is illuminated. From Middle English gibbous, from Latin gibbus ("humped, hunched") + the English suffix -ous; first attested c. 1400. Unlike "convex," a sterile geometric term for any outward curve, or "crescent," which names the slender sliver of a young moon, "gibbous" carries the suggestion of a lopsided, swollen fullness. It is the hunched silhouette of a weary pilgrim, the distended belly of a late-summer gourd, and most faithfully, that luminous, humpbacked orb suspended between half and whole—a perfect, quiet argument against the tyranny of the full and the new.
Etymology
From Middle English gibbous, from Latin gibbus (“humped, hunched”), probably cognate with cubō (“bend oneself, lie down”), Italian gobba (“humpback”), Ancient Greek κῡφός (kūphós, “humpback, bent”), κύβος (kúbos, “cube, vertebra”), Spanish giboso (“humped”). Also ultimately compare dialectal Norwegian keiv (“slanted, wrong”), German schief (“crooked, slanting”) and Dutch scheef (“crooked, slanting”).
adj
- Curved or bulged outward.“In fact, what these gibbous human shapes specially represented was ready money—money insistently ready [...]”
- Having more than half (but not the whole) of its disc illuminated.“The moving moon, full, gibbous, or crescent-shaped, shone at last for the navigators of the eighteenth century like a luminous hand on the clock of heaven.”
- Humpbacked.“A pointed flinty rock, all bare and black,
Grew gibbous from behind the mountain's back;”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- crescent 87% match — The figure of the moon as it appears between its first or last quarter and the new moon, with concave and convex edges terminating in points. vs gibbous →
- plenilune 86% match — The full moon. vs gibbous →
- increscent 84% match — A crescent oriented with horns turned to dexter (pointing to the viewer's left). vs gibbous →
- plenilunar 83% match — Of, pertaining to, or resembling the full moon. vs gibbous →
- protuberance 81% match — A bulge, knob, swelling, spine, or anything that protrudes. vs gibbous →
- umbilication 80% match — A small, navel-shaped depression, or dimple, at the centre of a rounded body. vs gibbous →
- decrescent 80% match — Becoming gradually less; diminishing. vs gibbous →
- earthshine 80% match — Sunlight reflected from the Earth's surface, especially when visible on the part of the Moon's surface not illuminated by the Sun (the night side); earthlight. vs gibbous →