Plural of vertex; the corner points where edges meet in geometric shapes or the highest points of objects. In mathematics, the points where lines or curves intersect.
From Latin vertex meaning 'whirlpool, crown of the head, summit', from vertere 'to turn'. The geometric sense emerged in medieval Latin as scholars translated Greek mathematical texts.
The original meaning of 'whirlpool' captures the idea of lines converging at a single point, like water swirling to a center. In graph theory, vertices are the fundamental building blocks that make networks possible - from social media connections to neural pathways.
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