a unit used in meteorology to measure cloud cover, equivalent to a cloud cover of one eighth of the sky
Word origin
C20: from Greek okta-, oktō eight
octa- in British English
combining form
a variant of octo-
octa- in American English
(ˈɑktə)
eight
octagon
Word origin
Gr okta- < oktō, eight
octa- in American English
prefix
a combining form occurring in loanwords from Greek and Latin, where it meant “eight” (octagon, octastyle). On this model, octa- is used in the formation of compound words, and in chemical terms specialized to mean “having eight atoms” (octavalent)