Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A representation of a sphere or part of a sphere on a plane surface.
- n. Astronomy A polar projection of half or more of the celestial sphere on a chart equipped with an adjustable overlay to show the stars visible at a particular time and place.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A projection of the sphere; especially, a polar projection of the celestial sphere
- n. An apparatus consisting of a polar projection of the heavens, with a card over it turning about the pole, and so cut out as to show the part of the heavens visible at a given latitude at a given local sidereal time.
Wiktionary
- n. Any representation of part of a sphere on a plane surface
- n. astronomy Any of several charts of the celestial sphere having an overlay or window that may be adjusted to show the stars visible at a particular time, or from a particular place
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The representation of the circles of the sphere upon a plane; especially, a representation of the celestial sphere upon a plane with adjustable circles, or other appendages, for showing the position of the heavens, the time of rising and setting of stars, etc., for any given date or hour.
Examples
“A planisphere is a visual aid to astronomers and stargazers.”
“A planisphere is a small thing that I can just leave tucked in with my maps in my car and anytime I'm out doing a star party or I'm at a friend's for a barbeque and they're like, "hey, what's that object?”
“planisphere," because it can be made to show all the constellations visible at a given time at a given date, and no others.”
“The planisphere must have been a marvel to the men who first set eyes on it in year 548 of the Hijrah—or 1154 in the calendar of Christian kings: a perfect disk of solid silver, close to two meters in diameter, and weighing as much as two men.”
“A medical text in Arabic written by a Jewish doctor living in Tunisia in the early 900s explains that, two hundred years before al-Idrisi created his silver planisphere, itriyya already meant long thin strands of dried dough that were cooked by boiling.”
“The execution of Philip of Mahdiyah happened at the very time when engravers were at work on the silver planisphere, and al-Idrisi was bringing his decade and a half of study to an end by writing A Diversion for the Man Longing to Travel to Far-Off Places.”
“The silver planisphere is a sorry symbol of how much of the cultural legacy of Muslim Sicily has been destroyed.”
“Al-Idrisi interviewed these polyglot traders as he labored to create the planisphere.”
“It contained information on the customs, products, commerce, language, and character of all the locations on the planisphere.”
“Their motive, if this theory is correct, was that al-Idrisi worked for an infidel: he was commissioned to create the planisphere by King Roger II.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘planisphere’.
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the curious incident of the dog in th...
words from a novel by mark haddon
dog, garden fork, Wellington, prime, maths, clench, The Hound of the ..., police, dead, bread-slicing mac..., groaning, drawn and 126 more...
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phrontistery - p
from phrontistery.info
pabouche, pabulous, pabulum, pacable, pace, pachydermia, pachyglossal, pachymeter, pachynsis, paciferous, pacificate, pactolian and 1766 more...
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Wheel
lantern-wheel, trundle-wheel, trundlehead, worm wheel, cogwheel, match wheel, spur wheel, disk-wheel, star-wheel, canting-wheel, addendum circle, dedendum and 115 more...
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Relating To: The Sky
Words of, about, or relating to the heavens.
firmament, horizon, celestial, pleiades, supernal, welkin, cerulean, hypaethral, abatjour, upaithric, canopus, cerulific and 40 more...
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Spheres
Pneumatosphere, planisphere, empyrean, bailiwick, blastula, orbicle, globose, welkin, almucantar, bathysphere, colure, blastocyst and 46 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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The Whiteness of the Whale
Words in Melville's "Moby Dick"
grapnels, spile, pea coffee, farrago, grego, bosky, bombazine, brevet, cenotaph, cupidity, kelson, obliquity and 164 more...
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Selected Terms from Falconer's New Un...
1815 edition; ed. William Burney (London: Chatham Publishing, 2006).
widows' men, ballatoon, boomkin, leefange, falconet, maculae, lepus, koff, pardo, periagua, dingass, saik and 238 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, P
pellucid, pertain, pampas, prate, pinecone, philistine, pantocrator, papaverine, postmeridian, potlatch, pharology, pinniped and 622 more...
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Adult School
The Fall adult school/community education catalogs are out.
patination, metalsmithing, hands-on potting, ikebana, loom knitting, skein of yarn, mechanical pencil, scrapbooking, distressed proper..., purchasing pre-fo..., how to flip ugly ..., methode champenois and 45 more...
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Romanesque
wth
downtrodden, skeletal, zoomorphic, lionhearted, lionism, purr, meow, pomagrant, amphetamine, �?��??り�?�, prozac, heroin and 31 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for planisphere.
milosrdenstvi .
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Unless the giddy heaven fall,
And earth some new convulsion tear;
And, us to join, the world should all
Be cramped into a planisphere.
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Andrew Marvell, The Definition of Love Oct 9, 2009
chained_bear "... a projection of the sphere, and its various circles on a plane, in which sense maps, wherein are exhibited the meridians, and other circles, are called Planispheres.
"Planisphere, is also the name of an astronomical instrument, used in observing the motions of the heavenly bodies; being a projection of the celestial sphere upon a plane, representing the stars, constellations, &c. in their proper order, distance, &c.; as the astrolabe, which is a common name for all such projections."
—Falconer's New Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1816), 347 Oct 14, 2008