astronomy

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He had learned astronomy from a Norwegian sailor, as they lay on the deck of a Pacific transport night after night in the southern seas.

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Definitions (9)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun The scientific study of matter in outer space, especially the positions, dimensions, distribution, motion, composition, energy, and evolution of celestial bodies and phenomena.
  2. noun A system of knowledge or beliefs about celestial phenomena: the various astronomies of ancient civilizations.

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Examples (50)

  • Modern astronomy is the natural continuation and development of the work of Hipparchus and of Ptolemy; modern physics of that of Democritus and of Archimedes; it was long before modern biological science outgrew the knowledge bequeathed to us by Aristotle, by Theophrastus, and by Galen We cannot know all the best thoughts and sayings of the Greeks unless we know what they thought about natural phenomena. —  Harvard Classics Volume 28 Essays English and American
  • Chemistry, mathematics and astronomy were also taught. —  The Story of Atlantis and the Lost Lemuria
  • I niver thought o' that Mivins was evidently a little puffed up with a feeling of satisfaction at the clever way in which he had got out of the difficulty without displaying his ignorance of astronomy, and was even venturing, in the pride of his heart, to make some speculative and startling assertions in regard to the "'eavenly bodies" generally, when Buzzby put his head up the hatchway Hallo! —  The World of Ice
  • In that brief experience I became for the first time intensely interested in practical astronomy, about which I had thought little before, although I had had sole charge of the observatory for some time. —  Forty-Six Years in the Army
  • Yet I found in after life far more use for the law than for physics and astronomy, and little less than for the art and science of war In June, 1857, I married Miss Harriet Bartlett, the second daughter of my chief in the department of philosophy. —  Forty-Six Years in the Army
 

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Words tagged astronomy

telescopically · Venus · Uranus · Saturn · Pluto · Neptune · Mercury · Mars · jupiter · earth · Earth

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English astronomie, from Old French, from Latin astronomia, from Greek astronomiā : astro-, astro- + -nomiā, -nomy.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English astronomie, astronemie (also contr. astrony), from Old French astronomie, from Latin astronomia, from Greek ἀστρονομία, astronomy, from ἀστρονόμος, an astronomer, literally ‘star-arranging’ (with reference to classifying or mapping the stars or constellations), from ἄστρον, a star, + νέμειν, distribute, arrange: see nome.
 

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/æsˈtrɑnəmi/
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