What does Galaxy mean?

Definitions for Galaxy
ˈgæl ək sigal·axy

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word Galaxy.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. galaxynoun

    a splendid assemblage (especially of famous people)

  2. galax, galaxy, wandflower, beetleweed, coltsfoot, Galax urceolatanoun

    tufted evergreen perennial herb having spikes of tiny white flowers and glossy green round to heart-shaped leaves that become coppery to maroon or purplish in fall

  3. galaxy, extragalactic nebulanoun

    (astronomy) a collection of star systems; any of the billions of systems each having many stars and nebulae and dust

    "`extragalactic nebula' is a former name for `galaxy'"

GCIDE

  1. Galaxynoun

    A very large collection of stars comparable in size to the Milky Way system, held together by gravitational force and separated from other such star systems by large distances of mostly empty space. Galaxies vary widely in shape and size, the most common nearby galaxies being over 70,000 light years in diameter and separated from each other by even larger distances. The number of stars in one galaxy varies, and may extend into the hundreds of billions.

Wiktionary

  1. galaxynoun

    The Milky Way; the apparent band of concentrated stars which appears in the night sky over earth.

  2. galaxynoun

    Any of the collections of many millions of stars, galactic dust, black holes, etc. existing as independent and coherent systems, of which there are billions in the known universe.

  3. Galaxynoun

    the Milky Way Galaxy, from when it was thought the Universe (our universe) had only one galaxy

  4. Etymology: From galaxie, from galaxias, from γαλαξίας, from γάλα.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Galaxynoun

    The milky way; a stream of light in the sky.

    Etymology: γαλαξία; galaxie, Fr.

    A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold,
    And pavement stars, as stars to thee appear,
    Seen in the galaxy. John Milton, Paradise Lost, b. vii.

    A brown, for which heaven would disband
    The galaxy, and stars be tann’d. John Cleveland.

    Men doubt, because they stand so thick i’ th’ sky,
    If those be stars that paint the galaxy. Abraham Cowley.

    We dare not undertake to shew what advantage is brought to us by those innumerable stars in the galaxy. Richard Bentley, Serm.

Wikipedia

  1. Galaxy

    A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek galaxias (γαλαξίας), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. Galaxies, averaging an estimated 100 million stars, range in size from dwarfs with less than a hundred million stars, to the largest galaxies known – supergiants with one hundred trillion stars, each orbiting its galaxy's center of mass. Most of the mass in a typical galaxy is in the form of dark matter, with only a few percent of that mass visible in the form of stars and nebulae. Supermassive black holes are a common feature at the centres of galaxies. Galaxies are categorized according to their visual morphology as elliptical, spiral, or irregular. Many are thought to have supermassive black holes at their centers. The Milky Way's central black hole, known as Sagittarius A*, has a mass four million times greater than the Sun. As of March 2016, GN-z11 is the oldest and most distant galaxy observed. It has a comoving distance of 32 billion light-years from Earth, and is seen as it existed just 400 million years after the Big Bang. In 2016, using 20 years of images from the Hubble space telescope, it was estimated that there were in total two trillion (2×1012) or more galaxies in the observable universe, and as many as an estimated 1×1024 stars (more stars than all the grains of sand on all beaches of the planet Earth).In 2021, data from NASA's New Horizons space probe was used to revise the earlier estimate to roughly 200 billion galaxies (2×1011),Most galaxies are 1,000 to 100,000 parsecs in diameter (approximately 3,000 to 300,000 light years) and are separated by distances on the order of millions of parsecs (or megaparsecs). For comparison, the Milky Way has a diameter of at least 26,800 parsecs (87,400 ly) and is separated from the Andromeda Galaxy (with diameter of about 152,000 ly), its nearest large neighbor, by 780,000 parsecs (2.5 million ly.) The space between galaxies is filled with a tenuous gas (the intergalactic medium) with an average density of less than one atom per cubic meter. Most galaxies are gravitationally organized into groups, clusters and superclusters. The Milky Way is part of the Local Group, which it dominates along with Andromeda Galaxy. The group is part of the Virgo Supercluster. At the largest scale, these associations are generally arranged into sheets and filaments surrounded by immense voids. Both the Local Group and the Virgo Supercluster are contained in a much larger cosmic structure named Laniakea.

ChatGPT

  1. galaxy

    A galaxy is an extensive system of stars, gas, dust, and dark matter that is held together by gravitational forces. These vast collections often include hundreds of millions, billions, or even trillions of stars, along with various celestial objects such as planets, asteroids, and comets. The earth's solar system, for example, is part of the Milky Way galaxy. Galaxies come in various forms and sizes, commonly categorized as elliptical, spiral, or irregular.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Galaxynoun

    the Milky Way; that luminous tract, or belt, which is seen at night stretching across the heavens, and which is composed of innumerable stars, so distant and blended as to be distinguishable only with the telescope. The term has recently been used for remote clusters of stars

  2. Galaxynoun

    a splendid assemblage of persons or things

  3. Etymology: [F. galaxie, L. galaxias, fr. Gr. (sc. circle), fr. , , milk; akin to L. lac. Cf. Lacteal.]

Wikidata

  1. Galaxy

    A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system consisting of stars, stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and, dark matter, an important but poorly understood component. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias, literally "milky", a reference to the Milky Way. Examples of galaxies range from dwarfs with as few as ten million stars to giants with a hundred trillion stars, each orbiting their galaxy's own center of mass. Galaxies contain varying numbers of star systems, star clusters and types of interstellar clouds. In between these objects is a sparse interstellar medium of gas, dust, and cosmic rays. Supermassive black holes reside at the center of all galaxies. They are thought to be the primary driver of active galactic nuclei found at the core of some galaxies. The Milky Way galaxy is known to harbor at least one such object. Galaxies have been historically categorized according to their apparent shape, usually referred to as their visual morphology. A common form is the elliptical galaxy, which has an ellipse-shaped light profile. Spiral galaxies are disk-shaped with dusty, curving arms. Those with irregular or unusual shapes are known as irregular galaxies and typically originate from disruption by the gravitational pull of neighboring galaxies. Such interactions between nearby galaxies, which may ultimately result in a merger, sometimes induce significantly increased incidents of star formation leading to starburst galaxies. Smaller galaxies lacking a coherent structure are referred to as irregular galaxies.¹¹

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Galaxy

    gal′ak-si, n. the Milky-Way, or the luminous band of stars stretching across the heavens: any splendid assemblage. [Through Fr. and L., from Gr. galaxiasgala, milk.]

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

  1. Galaxy

    the Milky Way, a band of light seen after sunset across the heavens, consisting of an innumerable multitude of stars, or suns rather, stretching away into the depths of space.

Dictionary of Nautical Terms

  1. galaxy

    A name of the Milky Way. (See VIA LACTEA.)

Editors Contribution

  1. galaxy

    A group of stars.

    The galaxy is so beautiful.


    Submitted by MaryC on March 3, 2020  

Suggested Resources

  1. galaxy

    Song lyrics by galaxy -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by galaxy on the Lyrics.com website.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of Galaxy in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of Galaxy in Pythagorean Numerology is: 7

Examples of Galaxy in a Sentence

  1. L. P. Hartley, The Go-Between:

    As for the Virgin, the one distinctively female figure in the galaxy.

  2. Bob Iger:

    We wanted to create something deeply immersive, you actually walk through this land and you feel like you are on the outer edge of the galaxy.

  3. Peter Tuthill:

    The bones of these rare massive stars had to be out there, but they seemed to shroud themselves in mystery, the oldest neutron stars and black holes were created when the galaxy was younger and shaped differently, and then subjected to complex changes spanning billions of years. It has been a major task to model all of this to find them.

  4. Christopher Conselice:

    It is called the Astrobiological Copernican Principle because it makes the assumption that our existence is not special, that is, if the conditions in which intelligent life on Earth also developed somewhere else in the Galaxy then intelligent life would develop there in a similar way.

  5. Australian National University:

    The Milky Way is on a collision course with Andromeda in about four billion years. So knowing what kind of a monster our galaxy is up against is useful in finding out the Milky Ways ultimate fate.

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Translations for Galaxy

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"Galaxy." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/Galaxy>.

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