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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. The vault or expanse of the heavens; the sky.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Foundation; support; basis.
  2. n. The sky or heavens; the vault of heaven, viewed as something solid and abiding; the region of the air. [The Hebrew word rakia, which is so rendered in Scripture, conveys chiefly the idea of expansion, although that of solidity is also suggested, inasmuch as the root signification of the word is ‘that which is expanded by beating out.’ The English firmament is adopted from the Latin firmamentum, which is the equivalent of the Greek στερέωμα (⟨στερεός, firm, solid), by which the writers of the Septuagint rendered rakia. Some old astronomers identified the firmament with the orb of the fixed stars; but the word never had any settled and exact meaning in astronomy.]
  3. n. A piece of jewelry, as a star or the like, meant to be worn in a head-dress, such as the commode or tower of the seventeenth century.

Wiktionary

  1. n. uncountable The vault of the heavens; the sky.
  2. n. obsolete basis.
  3. n. The field or sphere of an interest or activity.
  4. n. archaic In the geocentric Ptolemaic system, the eighth sphere, which carried the fixed stars.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. obsolete Fixed foundation; established basis.
  2. n. The region of the air; the sky or heavens.
  3. n. (Old Astron.) The orb of the fixed stars; the most rmote of the celestial spheres.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. the apparent surface of the imaginary sphere on which celestial bodies appear to be projected

Etymologies

  1. Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin firmāmentum, from Latin, support, from firmāre, to strengthen; see firm2. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

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Lists

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  • cutlery One of the ugliest words ever for one of the most glorious things ever. A shame. It sounds like it means solidified plaque. "Aha, Mr. Johnson, it looks we've got quite a bit of firmament building up on the side of your molars." Jan 24, 2010

  • cutlery "My daydream had me traveling to Belgium, persuading Vyvyan Ayers he needed to employ me as an amanuensis, accepting his offer to tutor me, shooting through the musical firmament, winning fame and fortune..." (Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, 045.5). Jan 24, 2010

  • madmouth So as soon as the door of 27 closed on Mr. and Mrs. Darling there was a commotion in the firmament, and the smallest of all the stars in the Milky Way screamed out : "Now, Peter!"

    -James M. Barrie, "Peter and Wendy"
    Apr 13, 2009

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‘firmament’ has been looked up 3540 times, loved by 14 people, added to 96 lists, commented on 3 times, and has a Scrabble score of 16.