Alpheratz
name ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A spectroscopic binary, visible as a second-magnitude blue-white star marking the head of the chained woman in the northern constellation of Andromeda (formerly seen as part of Pegasus), one of four stars in the asterism of the Great Square of Pegasus.
"In the head of Andromeda, there is a star of the second magnitude called Alpheratz and is one of those which form the square of Pegasus[…]. Alpheratz is on an imaginary line drawn from the north-easternmost star in the square of the Great Bear, through the north polar star, and distant from the latter about 61 degrees."
Example
More examples"In the head of Andromeda, there is a star of the second magnitude called Alpheratz and is one of those which form the square of Pegasus[…]. Alpheratz is on an imaginary line drawn from the north-easternmost star in the square of the Great Bear, through the north polar star, and distant from the latter about 61 degrees."
Etymology
From Arabic سُرَّةُ الْفَرَس (surratu l-faras, “the horse's navel”) (referring to Pegasus), from سُرَّة (surra, “navel”) + فَرَس (faras, “horse, steed”). Not related to alpha.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.