Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The galaxy containing the sun, solar system, and all of the individually visible stars in the night sky, along with various nebulae, star clusters, and dust clouds, thought to have a super-massive black hole at its center of mass.
  • noun The broad meandering band of faint light that consists of stars from this galaxy and is often visible in the night sky.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • The Galaxy. See Galaxy, 1.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun astronomy The Milky Way Galaxy, the galaxy in which Earth is located; extension of the night sky phenomenon.
  • proper noun astronomy A broad band of diffuse white light, visible in the night sky; our view of the dense portions of the Milky Way Galaxy from inside the galaxy.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the galaxy containing the solar system; consists of millions of stars that can be seen as a diffuse band of light stretching across the night sky

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, translation of Latin via lactea : via, way + lactea, feminine of lacteus, milky.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

A calque of Latin Via Lactea.

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Examples

  • I'll go later on this afternoon as www. lesliefieger.com/articles/grain_of_sand we call the Milky Way, easily visible on a ...

    CR4 - Recent Forum Threads and Blog Entries 2010

  • The Milky Way was a band of white fluorescence (now brighter, now darker) lit by flaring, dying stars.

    Spin 2005

  • It was white as cream, for when Hebê spilt some of it, the white arch of heaven, called the Milky Way, was made.

    Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 Ebenezer Cobham Brewer 1853

  • The latter, which we generally term the Milky Way, is composed of nebulous stars, averaging from the tenth to the eleventh degree of magnitude, * but appearing, when considered individually, of very different magnitudes, while isolated starry clusters (starry swarms) almost always exhibit throughout a character of great uniformity in magnitude and brilliancy.

    COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1 Alexander von Humboldt 1814

  • A ring of such blocks formed, which we now call the Milky Way, as well as a number of solar systems among which was our own, but with many more planets than currently exist.

    Light Steve 2010

  • For decades, astronomers thought when it came to the major galaxies in Earth's cosmic neighbourhood, our Milky Way was a weak sister to the larger Andromeda.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed 2009

  • For decades, astronomers thought when it came to the major galaxies in Earth's cosmic neighbourhood, our Milky Way was a weak sister to the larger Andromeda.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed 2009

  • For decades, astronomers thought when it came to the major galaxies in Earth's cosmic neighbourhood, our Milky Way was a weak sister to the larger Andromeda.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed 2009

  • For decades, astronomers thought when it came to the major galaxies in Earth's cosmic neighborhood, our Milky Way was a weak sister to the larger Andromeda.

    Megite Technology News: What's Happening Right Now 2009

  • For decades, astronomers thought when it came to the major galaxies in Earth's cosmic neighborhood, our Milky Way was a weak sister to the larger Andromeda.

    The Corner 2009

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