Galatea
//ˌɡæləˈtiːə// name, noun
name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A strong cotton fabric with diagonal twill weave
"He wore a blue galatea shirt, corduroy trousers and riding boots."
Proper Noun
- 1 Galatea; a woman who prayed for her daughter to be turned into a son, Leucippus. Greek
- 2 Galatea; a sea-nymph in Ovid's story of Acis and Galatea. Greek
- 3 Galatea; name given in the 18th century to the animated statue sculpted by Pygmalion. Greek
- 4 A moon of Neptune.
- 5 74 Galatea, a main belt asteroid.
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- 6 A settlement in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, named after HMS Galatea.
Example
More examples"The translucent and shining waters of the calm sea covered fragments of old Roman villas, which were interlaced by sea-weed, and received diamond tints from the chequering of the sun-beams; the blue and pellucid element was such as Galatea might have skimmed in her car of mother of pearl; or Cleopatra, more fitly than the Nile, have chosen as the path of her magic ship."
Etymology
Etymology 1
After Galatea, a British man-of-war, since the material was used for children's sailor suits.
Etymology 2
From Latin Galatēa, from Ancient Greek Γαλάτεια (Galáteia).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.