Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A constellation in the Northern Hemisphere near Cygnus and Hercules and containing Vega.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An ancient northern constellation, representing the lyre of Hermes or of Orpheus. Also called the Harp. The brightest star of this constellation is Vega (a Lyræ). It is the seventh in order of brightness in the heavens and the third brightest in the northern hemisphere, being half a magnitude brighter than a standard star of the first magnitude. It forms, with two small stars near it, an equilateral triangle, one of the most striking configurations of the summer sky. Vega, Arcturus, and Polaris form a large triangle, nearly right-angled at Vega.
- n. [lowercase; pl. lyræ (-rē).] In anatomy, a tract of the brain beneath the corpus callosum, on the under surface and between the divergent posterior pillars of the fornix. There the fibers are so arranged as to present certain longitudinal and transverse lines, fancifully likened to the strings of a lyre. The lyra is merely the appearance or formation of a surface, not a distinct part of the fornix. It is also known as the psalterium or corpus psalloides.
- n. In zoology: A genus of fishes.
- n. A genus of brachiopods.
- n. [lowercase] See lira.
Wiktionary
- n. A summer constellation of the northern sky, said to resemble a lyre. It includes the bright star Vega and the Ring Nebula.
- n. A female given name.
- n. A summer constellation of the northern sky, said to resemble a lyre. It includes the bright star Vega and the Ring Nebula.
- n. A female given name.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A northern constellation, the Harp, containing a white star of the first magnitude, called Alpha Lyræ, or Vega.
- n. The middle portion of the ventral surface of the fornix of the brain; -- so called from the arrangement of the lines with which it is marked in the human brain.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a small constellation in the northern hemisphere near Cygnus and Draco; contains the star Vega
Etymologies
- Latin, from lyra, lyre; see lyre.
Examples
“This isn't Harry Potter stuff where adults actually listen to children; Lyra is berated again and again, talked down to, betrayed, you name it.”
“Salvation will come only if Theron can win Lyra's trust — and her heart.”
“Dakota Blue Richards, in particular, acts with skill beyond her years and proves a perfect choice for the bold, charming, and tomboyish heroine Lyra; as a result of her performance, Lyra is more three-dimensional here than she is in the novels, where she remains consistently, bemusingly, and frustratingly uninterested in the larger happenings around her.”
“Lyra is too small to do much more than whap Sasha and run away, which she does rather frequently.”
“The "elder" meant is, according to some (in Lyra), Matthew.”
“This little story is complex and nuanced, and I found it much more satisfying than “Lyra and the Birds”, the story in Lyra’s Oxford.”
Once Upon a Time in the North by Philip Pullman and Further Web Wanderings
““He can’t tell a lie,” Emmerich told me recently, “and [Lyra] is an expert liar.””
“Lyra is the anti-Disney heroine: an unruly, unteachable orphan cared for by the university’s dons who spits and lies her way out of trouble.”
“Fans of the books may be wondering right now, where exactly the daemons are. for the unitiated, in Lyra’s universe, a person’s soul is embodied in a creature that remains forever bound to its human.”
“However upon his revival, Hunt meets the mutant known as Lyra-a Mariette Hartley, whose people, the Tyranians plan to become rulers of the slowly recovering world.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘Lyra’.
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pretty
pretty words.
nymph, silhouette, cosmic, pixie, illumination, serendipity, starlight, wanderlust, moon, Lyra, lullaby, effervescent and 24 more...
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