How to Use gibbous in a Sentence

gibbous

adjective
  • The moon was waxing gibbous and would be full in four days.
    Wyatt Williams, Harpers Magazine, 26 May 2026
  • That’s the huge impact of a bright gibbous moon.
    Jamie Carter, Forbes.com, 10 Aug. 2025
  • But on the 2nd and 3rd, it will be joined by the waning gibbous moon.
    National Geographic, 1 Apr. 2018
  • The waxing gibbous moon will be 97%-illuminated, which will make the night sky less than dark.
    Jamie Carter, Forbes, 14 Oct. 2024
  • Hope for clear night skies, as these meteors can’t compete with a gibbous moon.
    Blaine P. Friedlander Jr., Washington Post, 28 Oct. 2017
  • Waning gibbous – The moon heads back towards the sun.
    Saleen Martin, USA Today, 11 Aug. 2025
  • Half-moons are shown far less frequently, while gibbous moons are rarely depicted at all.
    Joe Rao, Space.com, 22 May 2026
  • Even a small instrument will show Venus as slightly gibbous, or just over half-full tonight.
    Nicole Clausing, Sunset Magazine, 27 Feb. 2020
  • Its gibbous disk appears small and featureless.
    Joe Rao, Space.com, 2 May 2026
  • This year, the peak night will have a waning gibbous moon rising before midnight and staying the sky all night.
    Jamie Carter, Forbes, 26 Sep. 2024
  • Lyrids meteor shower, with a waxing gibbous moon hanging bright in the sky.
    oregonlive, 30 Dec. 2020
  • Late on the 13th, look for the waxing gibbous moon to be perched next to brilliant star-like Jupiter.
    Andrew Fazekas, National Geographic, 1 July 2019
  • Tonight a 98%-lit waning gibbous moon will rise later at night close to Neptune.
    Jamie Carter, Forbes, 7 Aug. 2022
  • Light from the moon—which will be in its waning gibbous phase—will likely overpower many of the meteors.
    Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 17 Oct. 2024
  • Sky-watchers can see the waning gibbous moon and Mars rise in the east together in evening skies this weekend.
    National Geographic, 2 Sep. 2020
  • Sky watchers will have to contend with a bright waxing gibbous moon during the most prolific phase of the shower.
    Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 Apr. 2024
  • Skygazers could see as many as 40 meteors an hour, but the bright gibbous moon will probably wash out most of them.
    Blaine P. Friedlander Jr., Washington Post, 28 Apr. 2018
  • After darkness falls, look southeast for the waxing gibbous moon pairing up with the ringed world Saturn.
    National Geographic, 1 July 2017
  • According to EarthSky, a waning gibbous moon will be lighting up the sky around the time of the peak.
    Rachael O'Connor, MSNBC Newsweek, 6 Oct. 2025
  • That's because the waning gibbous moon will appear in the sky at the same time, most likely outshining many of the fainter shooting stars.
    Anthony Wood, Space.com, 4 May 2026
  • In between these two extremes our planet will appear as a crescent or half full or gibbous (between half and full) over the course of that orbit.
    Phil Plait, Scientific American, 9 Oct. 2025
  • However, the waning gibbous Moon—tonight 98%-lit—will blot-out all but the very brightest bits of the great comet.
    Jamie Carter, Forbes, 17 Oct. 2021
  • The waxing gibbous moon will shine close to the bright star Spica in the night sky tonight, ahead of its full moon phase on June 11.
    Anthony Wood, Space.com, 5 June 2025
  • In addition to those six planets, a 92%-illuminated waxing gibbous Moon will be high in the eastern sky.
    Ryan Brennan, Miami Herald, 19 Feb. 2026
  • The first humans to go around our moon, in 1968, saw a gibbous Earth coming up over the lunar horizon.
    Rebecca Boyle, The Atlantic, 10 Apr. 2026
  • On December 21 and 22 nights, a waxing gibbous moon will drop by Jupiter.
    Jamie Carter, Forbes, 30 Nov. 2023
  • An 82%-lit waning gibbous Moon will be between Saturn and Jupiter.
    Jamie Carter, Forbes, 10 July 2022
  • Mercury currently has the appearance of a waxing gibbous moon, with its right side lit by direct sunlight and its left bathed in shadow.
    Anthony Wood, Space.com, 29 Oct. 2025
  • Most of the reminiscences now popping up across the media focus the Earth itself, seen gibbous and gorgeous from afar.
    Corey S. Powell, Discover Magazine, 24 Dec. 2018
  • Unfortunately, the bright waning gibbous moon will block all but the brightest meteors.
    Stephanie Vermillion, Travel + Leisure, 1 Oct. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gibbous.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: