The difference between Node and Vertex

Node as a noun:

A knot, knob, protuberance or swelling.

Node as a noun (astronomy):

The point where the orbit of a planet, as viewed from the Sun, intersects the ecliptic. The ascending and descending nodes refer respectively to the points where the planet moves from South to North and N to S; their respective symbols are ☊ and ☋.

Node as a noun (botany):

A leaf node.

Node as a noun (computer networking):

A computer or other device attached to a network.

Node as a noun (engineering):

The point at which the lines of a funicular machine meet from different angular directions; — called also knot.

Node as a noun (geometry):

The point at which a curve crosses itself, being a double point of the curve. See and .

Node as a noun (geometry):

A similar point on a surface, where there is more than one tangent-plane.

Node as a noun (graph theory):

A vertex or a leaf in a graph of a network, or other element in a data structure.

Node as a noun (medicine):

A hard concretion or incrustation which forms upon bones attacked with rheumatism, gout, or syphilis; sometimes also, a swelling in the neighborhood of a joint.

Node as a noun (physics):

A point along a standing wave where the wave has minimal amplitude.

Node as a noun (rare):

The knot, intrigue, or plot of a dramatic work.

Node as a noun (technical):

A hole in the gnomon of a sundial, through which passes the ray of light which marks the hour of the day, the parallels of the Sun's declination, his place in the ecliptic, etc.

Node as a noun (computational linguistics):

The word of interest in a KWIC, surrounded by left and right cotexts.

Vertex as a noun:

The highest point of something.

Vertex as a noun (anatomy):

The highest surface on the skull.

Vertex as a noun (geometry):

The common point of the two rays of the angle, or its equivalent structure in polyhedra (meeting of edges) and higher order polytopes.

Vertex as a noun (mathematics):

A point on the curve with a local minimum or maximum of curvature.

Vertex as a noun (graph theory):

One of the elements of a graph joined or not by edges to other vertices.

Vertex as a noun (computer graphics):

A point in 3D space, usually given in terms of its Cartesian coordinates.

Vertex as a noun (optics):

The point where the surface of a lens crosses the optical axis.

Vertex as a noun (nuclear, or, particle physics):

An interaction point.

Vertex as a noun (astrology):

The point where the prime vertical meets the ecliptic in the western hemisphere of a natal chart.