coronal

comparative more coronal · superlative most coronal

1. Relating to a crown or coronation.

   The law and his coronal oath require his undeniable assent to what laws the Parliament agree upon.

   1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC

2. astronomyRelating to the corona of a star.

   The coronal light during the eclipse is faint.

   1878, William de Wiveleslie Abney, A Treatise on Photography

   1 more example

   Coronal holes are darker, cooler regions of the sun's atmosphere, or corona, containing little solar material. In these gaps, magnetic field lines whip out into the solar wind rather than looping back to the sun's surface. Coronal holes can affect space weather, as they send solar particles streaming off the sun about three times faster than the slower wind unleashed elsewhere from the sun's atmosphere, according to a description from NASA.

   2013 July 28, Megan Gannon, “Spacecraft Sees Giant 'Hole' In the Sun”, in news.yahoo.com, retrieved 29 Jul 2013

3. biologyRelating to the corona of a flower.
4. human sciencesRelating to a sound made with the tip or blade of the tongue.
5. anatomyRelating to the coronal plane that divides a body into dorsal (back) and ventral (front).
6. dentistryRelating to the external (supragingival) portion of the tooth.
7. medicineRelating to the corona glandis.
8. forensic medicineRelating to a coroner's duties and findings.

   Synonyms: coronial

plural coronals

1. A crown or coronet.

   That shall embellish more your beautie bright, / And crowne your heades with heavenly coronall, / Such as the Angels weare before Gods tribunall!

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

   1 more example

   Therfore aryse and dresse the thow gloton / For this day shall thou dye of my hand / Thenne the gloton anone starte vp and tooke a grete clubbe in his hand / and smote at the kynge that his coronal fylle to the erthe

   1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter V, in Le Morte Darthur, book V

2. A wreath or garland of flowers.

   Where, darker for the sky's unclouded dome, The waves took sudden coronals of foam

   1911, George Sterling, Duandon

   1 more example

   The bowl is in the Renaissance style, with winged figures supporting coronals and wreaths of flowers, and on the edge is an emblematic figure pouring out water.

   1862, Edward McDermott, The Popular Guide to the International Exhibition of 1862, Cambridge University Press, published 2014

3. The frontal bone, over which the ancients wore their coronae or garlands.

   Oxycephaly results from the fusion of both coronal sutures and of the sagittal suture; trigonocephaly from a fusion of both coronals; […]

   1947, Hans Grüneberg, Animal Genetics and Medicine, page 190

4. human sciencesA consonant produced with the tip or blade of the tongue.

   This structurally accounts for a number of phenomena that treat coronals asymetrically with respect to other places of articulation.

   2011, Mirco Ghini, Asymmetries in the Phonology of Miogliola, page 34

plural coronals

1. alternativeAlternative form of cronel (“lance-part”).

   […] the proper stroke was to knock off the salade, or bear it off in triumph on the three-pronged coronal of the lance.

   1864, Central Committee of the British Archaeological Association for the Encouragement and Prosecution of Researches into the Arts and Monuments of the Early and Middle Ages, The Archaeological Journal, page 177

   2 more examples

   By Mr. Neville's kindness an accurate drawing of this relic has been obtained, and, considering the circumstances of its discovery, it has been conjectured that it may have been the coronal of a tilting lance.

   1848, The Archaeological Journal, page 227

   The tilting lance differed from a war lance in that it possessed a coronal instead of a point. The coronal consisted of[…]

   1908, Bertram Edward Sargeaunt, Weapons: A Brief Discourse on Hand-weapons Other Than Fire-arms, page 26

plural coronals

1. obsoleteObsolete form of colonel.