The ratio of the hypotenuse (in a right-angled triangle) to the side opposite an acute angle; the reciprocal of sine.
‘The other angle, B has its tanglent equal to its cosecant (the reciprocal of the sine).’
‘The variance of D is computed from the variance of the misclosure W scaled with the separation of the planes of position dv and the cosecant of the angle of maximum inclination of the slope dd.’
‘The secant and cosecant were not used by the early astronomers or surveyors.’
‘No I'm not, that's quite the negative cosecant.’
‘‘Negative cosecant squared x,’ I murmured, feeling as light-headed and tingle-infested as I had when I'd received a perfect score.’
Origin
Early 18th century from modern Latin cosecant-, from co-‘mutually’ + Latin secant- ‘cutting’ (from the verb secare). Compare with secant.
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