What is "maltese cross"

maltese cross \maltese cross\ n. (Bot.) A Eurasian garden perennial ( Lychins chalcedonica) having scarlet flowers in dense terminal heads.

Syn: scarlet lychnis, Lychins chalcedonica.

2. A cross with triangular or arrow-shaped arms and the points toward the center. See illustration under cross.

1. n. Eurasian garden perennial having scarlet flowers in dense terminal heads [syn: scarlet lychnis, Lychins chalcedonica]

2. a cross with triangular or arrow-shaped arms and the points toward the center

The Maltese cross is the cross symbol associated with the Order of St. John since the middle ages, shared with the traditional Knights Hospitaller and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, and by extension with the island of Malta. The cross is a white eight-pointed cross having the form of four "V"-shaped elements, each joining the others at its vertex, leaving the other two tips spread outward symmetrically. This is placed on a red background or worn on a black mantle. The term is often wrongly applied to all forms of eight-pointed crosses irrespective of colour or background.

The Maltese cross is the symbol of an order of Christian warriors known as the Knights Hospitaller or Knights of Malta.

Maltese cross may also refer to:

• "Maltese Cross" (Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode), an episode of the television show Law & Order: Criminal Intent
• Maltese cross (plant) Lychnis chalcedonica, a species of flowering plant
• Maltese Cross mechanism, a mechanism that translates a continuous rotation into an intermittent rotary motion
• An experiment in a Crookes tube first performed by Juliusz Plücker
• A move performed on gymnastics rings
• Theodore Roosevelt's Maltese Cross Cabin, a cabin used by Theodore Roosevelt
• Maltese Cross is a domino game

In polymer physics, Maltese Cross is a set of four symmetrically disposed sectors of high extinction that is displayed when a polymer is observed under polarized lights. This is usually observed when trying to observe spheruliltes in polymers.

Category:Polymer physics