Standard Lemma guide

cosecant

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • US: kō'sēkənt
  • US: /ˈkoʊˌsiːkənt/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

In a right triangle, the reciprocal of the sine of an angle. Symbols: cosec, csc

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: mathematics, sciences, trigonometry

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

ratio of the hypotenuse to the opposite side of a right-angled triangle

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cosec

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: trigonometric function, circular function

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Latin co-der. English co- English secant English cosecant From co- + secant.

Across languages

Translations

25 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: kosekans — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Afrikaans: kosekanse — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Arabic: قَاطِعُ تَمَام (qāṭiʕu tamām) — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Catalan: cosecant — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Cebuano: kaduhabok — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Chinese Mandarin: 餘割 /余割 (yúgē) — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Czech: kosekans — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Finnish: kosekantti — reciprocal of the sine function
  • French: cosécante — reciprocal of the sine function
  • German: Kosekans — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Greek: συντέμνουσα (syntémnousa) — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Hungarian: koszekáns — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Icelandic: kósekans — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Ido: kosekanto — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Italian: cosecante — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Japanese: 余割 (yokatsu) — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Japanese: コセカント (kosekanto) — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Khmer: កូសេកង់ (kouseekɑng) — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Portuguese: co-secante — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Romanian: cosecantă — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Russian: косе́канс (kosɛ́kans) — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Spanish: cosecante — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Tagalog: kasekway — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Tamil: செவ்வளை நேர்மாற்று (cevvaḷai nērmāṟṟu) — reciprocal of the sine function
  • Thai: โคซีแคนต์ — reciprocal of the sine function