Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A star, especially Polaris, that is used as a point of reference.
- n. A guiding principle, interest, or ambition.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A star that leads or serves to guide; especially, the pole-star: often used figuratively.
Wiktionary
- n. A star used as a navigation reference, particularly a
pole star such as Polaris. - n. A guiding tenet.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Same as loadstar.
WordNet 3.0
- n. guiding star; a star that is used as a reference point in navigation or astronomy
- n. something that serves as a model or guide
Etymologies
- Middle English lodesterre : lode, way; see lode + sterre, star; see star.
Examples
“North Korean state media had used the term "lodestar" in reference to Kim Jong Il, as well as for the name of long-range rockets the country tested in 1998 and 2009, the NYT reports.”
The Huffington Post: North Korea To Punish Mourners Who Were Insincere
“Remember our nation's lodestar is a better future.”
The Huffington Post: Hal Donahue: "Capitalists" Didn't Build America; We Did
“His theological lodestar is Augustine, not Thomas Aquinas.”
“To believe that Obama is a socialist merely assumes his continued commitment to a world he has long described as his lodestar.”
“Are we losing our lodestar, which is the Bill of Rights?”
“Blood and death suffuses the history of southern Africa, but our lodestar is a noble hope.”
“The lodestar was a term North Korean propagandists had used for Mr. Kim.”
“Smith's favourite movie, is, she says, a 'lodestar' to her when writing anything: 'The time to make your mind up about people is never!”
“For many years, the British monarchy acted as a kind of lodestar for Americans, representing its nation's realpolitik process while itself escaping any overt political involvement.”
“Despite bitter disputes with France and Germany before the Iraq invasion in 2003, Washington has come to rely on the European Union over the last year as "a kind of lodestar," in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's words, that inspires and attracts democratic movements from Ukraine to the Middle East.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘lodestar’.
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[Uni][verse]
to be used.
windfall, alkahest, tektite, cislunar, conatus, pansophy, universe, macrocosm, perfect storm, star-scattered, cynosure, stellate and 9 more...
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Light!
lambent, scintillant, refulgent, lucent, agile, gossamery, clarion, luminary, heliograph, lodestar, pharos, heliotrope
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Favorite Words
Fun words that are interesting and arresting.
Ort, unctuous, panoply, defenestrate, palpable, ubiquitous, flagellate, serendipitous, epiphanic, constructivist, amuse bouche, sobriquet and 30 more...
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Stars
star, gold star, superstar, Star Wars, Star Trek, star chart, five-pointed star, six-pointed star, eight-pointed star, Star Jones, Starbuck, Starbucks and 47 more...
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These words are about words.
words on words. yyep.
codex, folio, lexicon, tome, word stock, wordbook, wordlist, palaver, word index, argot, parlance, doublespeak and 68 more...
Prolagus Lady, lady, should you meet
One whose ways are all discreet,
One who murmurs that his wife
Is the lodestar of his life,
One who keeps assuring you
That he never was untrue,
Never loved another one...
Lady, lady better run.
(Dorothy Parker) Jun 17, 2008