Sirius
/ˈsɪɹi.əs/ name
name ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Proper Noun
- 1 A telescopic binary star, visually the brightest star in the night sky, a part of the northern constellation of Canis Major (the Greater Dog), one of three stars in the Winter Triangle asterism. Long understood as a single extremely luminous white star, it was associated in ancient Egypt with the Nile flood and in Greek and Roman culture with the "dog days" of summer.
- 2 The brightest star of the aforementioned star system; the white main-sequence star Sirius A. specifically
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"The orbit around Sirius is elliptical."
Etymology
From Latin Sīrius, from Ancient Greek Σείριος (Seírios), usually taken from σείριος (seírios, “scorching; scorcher”).