Definition of quincunx
: an arrangement of five things in a square or rectangle with one at each corner and one in the middle
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quincunx was our Word of the Day on 05/16/2016. Hear the podcast!
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Give Me Five For quincunx
In ancient Rome, a quincunx was a coin with a weight equal to five twelfths of a libra, a unit of weight similar to our pound. The coin's name comes from the Latin roots quinque, meaning "five," and uncia, meaning "one twelfth." The ancients used a pattern of five dots arranged like the pips on a die as a symbol for the coin, and English speakers applied the word to arrangements similar to that distinctive five-dot mark.
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