nadir

noun na·dir \ ˈnā-ˌdir , ˈnā-dər \

|Updated on: 16 Jun 2018

Examples: nadir in a Sentence

Editor's Note: nadir Has Arabic Roots

Definition of nadir

1 : the point of the celestial sphere that is directly opposite the zenith and vertically downward from the observer

2 : the lowest point

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Examples of nadir in a Sentence

Nantucket reached its nadir in the post-Civil War period. The whaling industry had become moribund, many New Englanders had been lured to California by the discovery of gold, and the island population dropped from ten thousand in 1830 to scarcely more than three thousand in 1880. —David H. Wood, Antiques, August 1995
But then, at the very nadir of that dark abandoned moment, that moment of despair and sickness unto death, … —T. Coraghessan Boyle, The Road to Wellville, 1993
My nadir was the time I presented an oral book report on "Les Misérables," having read only the Classic Comics version … —Stephen Jay Gould, New York Times Book Review, 12 Oct. 1986
The relationship between the two countries reached a nadir in the 1920s.
the discussion really reached its nadir when people resorted to name-calling

Recent Examples of nadir from the Web

Get our daily newsletter Even before that signal victory, things were not as bad as at the democratic nadir in the 1970s and early 1980s.

— The Economist, "South-East Asia: lots of elections, not so much democracy," 24 May 2018
The prime of Johnson’s career roughly corresponded with what was probably the nadir of civil rights in America in the post-Civil War years.

— matthew yglesias, Vox, "Donald Trump’s posthumous pardon of boxing champion Jack Johnson, explained," 24 May 2018
The best example of how to use a congressional investigation came at the nadir of the Great Depression.

— kevin baker, The New Republic, "Why America needs truth and reconciliation after Trump," 17 May 2018
During Barbee's tenure, Auburn never had a winning season as the program hit a nadir, prompting his firing following a 14-16 campaign in 2013-14.

— tom green, AL.com, "Former Auburn coach Tony Barbee trolls former team during NCAA Tournament loss," 18 Mar. 2018
As of this month, the president has regained about three percentage points of support from both those groups since his nadir, in late 2017.

— eric levitz, Daily Intelligencer, "Here’s Why Trump’s Approval Rating Has Gone Up," 16 May 2018
Oil prices have bounced back from their recent nadir to trade at about $63 a barrel, and Carrizo has raised more than $500 million selling drilling fields outside its core operating areas.

— ryan dezember, WSJ, "Activist Investors Try to Wake Up a Slumbering Energy Sector," 5 Apr. 2018
The Spec-Tater represents man’s zenith in this regard, and maybe also his nadir.

— jon tayler, SI.com, "Feast Mode: Some of the Best (And Craziest) Ballpark Food for the 2018 MLB Season," 5 Apr. 2018
That’s because 20 years ago, Japanese whisky was at a decades-long nadir of popularity, so distilleries didn’t set enough aside in their aging warehouses.

— jason daley, Smithsonian, "Why There’s a Japanese Whisky Shortage," 16 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'nadir.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

nadir Has Arabic Roots

Nadir is part of the galaxy of scientific words that have come to us from Arabic, a language that has made important contributions in the vocabulary of mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and chemistry. Nadir derives from an Arabic word meaning "opposite"—the opposite, that is, of the zenith, or the highest point of the celestial sphere, the one vertically above the observer. (The word zenith itself is a modification of another Arabic word that means "the way over one's head.") The English poet John Donne is first on record as having used nadir in the figurative sense of "lowest point" in a sermon he wrote in 1627.