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/vˈərnəl ˈikwənˌɑks/ Listen

adjective

vernal adj.

Of or pertaining to the spring; appearing in the spring; as, vernal bloom. "And purple all the ground with vernal flowers."

Fig.: Belonging to youth, the spring of life. "When after the long vernal day of life." "And seems it hard thy vernal years Few vernal joys can show?"

Vernal equinox (Astron.), the point of time in each year when the sun crosses the equator when proceeding northward, about March 21, when day and night are of approximately equal duration. The beginning of the Spring season.

Vernal grass (Bot.), a low, soft grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum), producing in the spring narrow spikelike panicles, and noted for the delicious fragrance which it gives to new-mown hay; also called sweet vernal grass.

Vernal signs (Astron.), the signs, Aries, Taurus, and Gemini, in which the sun appears between the vernal equinox and summer solstice.

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Etymology of 'Vernal equinox'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Vernal equinox" Quotes from Famous Books

... the year, some from the autumnal, others from the vernal equinox. The primitive patriarchs from that of autumn, that is, from the month called by the Hebrews Tisri, which coincides with part of our September and October. Hence it seems probable, that the world was created about that season; the earth, as appears from Gen. ...

— The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints - January, February, March • Alban Butler

... arranged spectacles of the instruction at St. Denis and the consecration at Chartres were followed on the day of the vernal equinox by a ...

— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley