vertex

UK/ˈvɜː.tɛks/US/ˈvɝˌtɛks/

nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,921 of 15,258mostly written

A vertex is the point where two edges of a shape meet. Three vertices, the vertex of the angle, at each vertex.

The plural is vertices, and a triangle has three of them. In graph theory a vertex is a node joined by edges, which is a different subject using the same word. Note vortex, which is the same Latin word arriving separately and means a whirl; and that the Latin means a whirl or a summit.

Definitions of vertex

1nounvertexThe point where two edges of a shape meet.C1
“Draw a line from each vertex of the square to its centre.”

vertex is a point.

Where it comes from

Latin vertex means a whirl or a summit, from vertere, to turn. Vortex is the same word arriving separately.

Proto-Indo-European
*wert-
Latin
vertex — whirl, eddy; top, crown, peak, summit
English, today
vertex

Late Middle English -, borrowed from Latin vertex (“whirl, eddy; top, crown, peak, summit”). a doublet of vortex.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Light & Shadow, Shapes & Lines

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vertex in the wild

Vertex coloring is often used to introduce graph coloring problems, since other coloring problems can be transformed into a vertex coloring instance.
Graph coloring
However, non-vertex coloring problems are often stated and studied as-is.
Graph coloring
The minimum vertex cover problem can be formulated as a half-integral, linear program whose dual linear program is the maximum matching problem.
Vertex cover
A vertex w is said to be adjacent to another vertex v if the graph contains an edge (v,w).
Vertex (graph theory)
In geometry, a vertex figure, broadly speaking, is the figure exposed when a corner of a general n-polytope is sliced off.
Vertex figure

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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