nadir

plural nadirs

1. The point of the celestial sphere, directly opposite the zenith; inferior pole of the horizon; point of the celestial sphere directly under the place of observation.

   […] when we are Nadyr to the Sunne, we have no ſhadow […]

   1638, Sir Thomas Herbert, Some years travels into divers parts of Asia and Afrique

   Synonyms: antizenith · Antonyms: zenith

2. figurativelyThe lowest point; time of greatest depression.

   Near-synonym: dead

   4 more examples

   […] the seventh century is the nadir of the human mind in Europe […]

   1837, Henry Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries

   In this nadir of poetic repute, when the only verse that most people read from one year’s end to the next is what appears on greetings cards, it is well for us to stop and consider our poets.

   1950, Elizabeth Janeway, edited by Helen Hull, The Writer’s Book

   The myth describes the dangerous moment of the nadir, the dead of winter, the moment when it is not known whether the world will be re-created and another cycle will bring on another spring.

   1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 175

   Trust had reached a nadir.

   2025 November 15, Cameron Pugh, “To a T: How Phillip Eng got Boston’s subway system back on track”, in The Christian Science Monitor

   Synonyms: slough of despond, trough, bathos, low point, low-water mark, dead · Antonyms: height, peak

3. astronomyThe axis of a projected conical shadow; the direction of the force of gravity at a location; down.

   The nadir of the sun is the axis of the shadow projected by the Earth.

   Synonyms: down

4. archaicagricultureAn empty box added beneath a full one in a beehive to give the colony more room to expand or store honey.

   Antonyms: duplet, super

present singular third person nadirs · participle present nadiring · participle past nadired · past nadired

1. transitiveagricultureTo extend (a beehive) by adding an empty box at the base.

1. A male given name.
2. A surname.