sinuous
adjective
Did you know?
Although it probably makes you think more of snakes than head colds, sinuous is etymologically more like sinus than serpent. Sinuous and sinus both derive from the Latin noun sinus, which means "curve, fold, or hollow." Other sinus descendants include insinuate ("to impart or suggest in an artful or indirect way") and two terms you might remember from math class: sine and cosine. In English, sinus is the oldest of these words; it entered the language in the 1400s. Insinuate appeared next, in the early 1500s, and was followed by sinuous and sine in the latter half of the 1500s, and cosine in the 1600s. Serpent, by the way, entered English in the 13th century and comes from the Latin verb serpere, meaning "to creep."
Examples of sinuous in a Sentence
Alexandra Kay, People.com, 25 May 2025
Henson matched her dress to a pair of sinuous high heel sandals from Rene Caovilla.
—Jaden Thompson, Footwear News, 23 May 2025
Save your finale for the swanky Tre Dita Bar in the new St. Regis Chicago, a sinuous 101-story skyscraper designed by prominent architect Jeanne Gang.
—Elaine Glusac, AFAR Media, 19 May 2025
They are meant to release you from the constraints of territory and era and personal identity into alternative possibilities, sinuous lines of hidden connection.
—Nicholas Dames, Harpers Magazine, 29 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for sinuous
Cite this Entry
“Sinuous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sinuous. Accessed 4 Jun. 2025.
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