Crescent
![An example of an artistic crescent — in this case a large circle with a smaller one removed.](/Images/godic/202501/08/Crescent.svg0735.png")
![An astronomically correct crescent shape (shaded area), complemented by a gibbous shape (unshaded area).](/Images/godic/202501/08/Gibbous-Crescent-half-ellipse-in-circle.svg0735.png")
![The Hindu god Shiva is depicted with the decrescent moon over his head in his locks.](/Images/godic/202501/08/Bearded_Shiva0735.jpg")
![Taq-e Bostan, from the era of Sassanid Empire of Persia (pre-Islamic era). Note the crescent above the arch.](/Images/godic/202501/08/Tagh10735.jpg")
In art and symbolism, a crescent (US: /ˈkrɛsənt/, UK: /ˈkrɛzənt/) is the shape produced when a circular disk has a segment of another circle removed from its edge, so that what remains is a shape enclosed by two circular arcs of different diameters which intersect at two points (usually in such a manner that the enclosed shape does not include the center of the original circle).