Definition of pendentive in US English:

noun

• A curved triangle of vaulting formed by the intersection of a dome with its supporting arches.

  Example sentences

  • ‘Two structural devices that are the hallmark of Byzantine engineering made this feat possible: pendentives and squinches.’
  • ‘Convex looking glasses in each pendentive both explode and compress the space.’
  • ‘His most important commission was for the apse and the pendentives beneath the cupola in; the dome was commissioned from his great rival, the Baroque painter.’
  • ‘Each storey is articulated by a balcony, projecting on a system of stalactite pendentives - this feature appearing for the first time in India and no doubt imported from classical Islamic construction.’
  • ‘The spaces are called spandrels - or pendentives, but the more general architectural term is spandrels.’