Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of, relating to, or concerned with the stars or constellations; stellar.
- adj. Measured or determined by means of the apparent daily motion of the stars: sidereal time.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Pertaining or relating to the constellations or fixed stars; consisting of or constituted by fixed stars: as, the sidereal regions; sidereal calculations; a sidereal group or system. Sidereal distinctively refers rather to stars in the aggregate or as arranged in constellations or groups than to a star considered singly. It is, therefore, not a precise synonym of stellar or astral, and still less, of course, of starry; although in many phrases it is interchangeable with stellar. Thus, the “sidereal spaces” are the “stellar spaces,” and “sidereal gold” is “starry spangles.”
Wiktionary
- adj. Of or relating to the stars.
- adj. astronomy Relating to a measurement of time relative to the position of the stars.
- adj. astronomy Relating to a measurement of time relative to the point of the vernal equinox.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Relating to the stars; starry; astral.
- adj. (Astron.) Measuring by the apparent motion of the stars; designated, marked out, or accompanied, by a return to the same position in respect to the stars
WordNet 3.0
- adj. of or relating to the stars or constellations
- adj. (of divisions of time) determined by daily motion of the stars
Etymologies
- Latin sidereus, from sidus, sider-, star (Wiktionary)
- From Latin sīdereus, from sīdus, sīder-, constellation, star. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“This is the difference between what we call the sidereal day (the time that it takes to make one complete rotation) and the synodic day (the time that it takes to go from the Sun highest in the sky until the Sun is again at its highest in the sky).”
“Kepler, Galileo, and Newton in the seventeenth century, were the means of effecting a rapid advance in the science of astronomy; but that branch of it known as sidereal astronomy was not then in existence.”
“It's called sidereal or Vedic astrology, and it's popular in India.”
The Washington Post: Astrologers struggle with slippage between constellations, horoscope signs
“What they are probably thinking is that the imaginary line mentioned above from the earth to the sun sweeps out a full circle in one year; this is called a sidereal year: the time it takes for the sun to appear in the same place against the backdrop of the fixed stars.”
“Indeed, little was known of those orbs until within the past hundred years, when the exploration of the heavens by the aid of greatly increased telescopic power, was the means of creating a new branch of astronomical science, called sidereal astronomy.”
“The time which the earth occupies in making a complete rotation around this axis is called a sidereal day.”
“As in connection with 1: 7 the idea of a kind of sidereal ocean had to be rejected as a purely fanciful notion of commentators, so here.”
“While I agree that talking about the misogyny is important, it's kind of sidereal to the point I was trying to make, which was that my childhood and teen years as a trans person shaped my socialization and upbringing in ways that aren't acknowledged.”
“The whole sidereal system coruscated, reeled and fell in flame.”
“In other words, everybody has two signs - one linked to the seasons (Western tradition) and the other more closely linked to the constellations (sidereal).”
The Washington Post: Astrologers struggle with slippage between constellations, horoscope signs
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sidereal’.
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Visuals
A list of words which yield surprising, beautiful, amusing, or otherwise noteworthy images here on Wordnik.
photochrom, fufluns, thank you, cool l..., postcard, picture postcard, cricket, physiological ill..., Gakuryū Ishii, ametropia, One Froggy Evening, rhodopsin, Santiago Calatrava and 636 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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all sides
sidecar, sidekick, sided, sidelong, sider, sideline, sidewise, sideways, sidetrack, sideslip, sidestep, sidepiece and 103 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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words 1
Traduce, Ramify, precipitous, rapture, adumbrate, knell, smolder, vagary, choleric, sibylline, hypocritical, jejune and 135 more...
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phrontistery-s
from phrontistery.info
sabaton, sabbatarian, sabbulonarium, sabelline, sabin, sable, sabliere, sabot, sabretache, sabulous, saburration, saccade and 1593 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Tricky To Spell or Pronounce
ply, stationary, stationery, monetize, finagle, cartilaginous, apposite, languor, douceur, Umwelt, faze, sequela and 13 more...
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-eal adj.
marmoreal, ethereal, incorporeal, arboreal, sidereal, funereal, corporeal, venereal, extracorporeal, noncorporeal, purpureal, boreal and 14 more...
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allophonic homographs revisited
In 2007, wired weird started a marvelous list:
Two words, one spelling, two pronunciations
peaked, atour, sidereal, logit, number, minute, wound, bow, agape, lead, desert, buffet and 11 more...
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My favorites
foible, sidereal, amygdala, woodnote, cogitate, silvern, ollalieberry, ramify, diaphanous, surreality, myopia, subcelestial and 75 more...
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Remember Not To Forget
Sephardic, Umwelt, amphiboly, untrammeled, sequela, pandiculation, tensegrity, syncretism, pugilism, shemagh, disquisition, perspicacity and 65 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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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1908 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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delightful descriptors
petrichor, omphaloskepsis, ouroboros, oneiric, flaneur, saunter, dishabituation, fractalization, eudemony, phosphorescence, holographic, umwelt and 136 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for sidereal.
yarb Oh, Century! Most romantic of lexicons. Mar 14, 2012
ruzuzu "Sidereal distinctively refers rather to stars in the aggregate or as arranged in constellations or groups than to a star considered singly. It is, therefore, not a precise synonym of stellar or astral, and still less, of course, of starry; although in many phrases it is interchangeable with stellar. Thus, the “sidereal spaces” are the “stellar spaces,” and “sidereal gold” is “starry spangles.”" --CD&C Mar 14, 2012
fbharjo the side of royalty (real) Sep 22, 2011
kingparton From the suns and stars that plunge forever through sidereal space to the electrons that whirl like mad dervishes within the atom, every particle of living matter is in movement.
Frank Crane, George Westinghouse: His Life and Achievements Jul 24, 2011
chained_bear "Sidereal, or siderial, something relating to the stars; as, Sidereal Year; Day, &c. being those marked out by the stars.
"Sidereal Day, is the time in which any star appears to revolve from the meridian to the meridian again, which is 23 hours 56' 4" 6"' of mean solar time, there being 366 sidereal days in a year...."
—Falconer's New Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1816), 472 Oct 13, 2008
liu_xing Truly one of my favourite words - for the spelling/pronunciation divide as much as the meaning.
Jan 22, 2007