Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A pale star varying in magnitude from 2.3 to 4.0 in a period of 2.89 days;
β Persei. - noun A pale star varying in magnitude from 2.3 to 4.0 in a period of 2.89 days;
β Persei.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the second brightest star in Perseus; the first known eclipsing binary
- noun (from a combination of ALGOrithmic and Language); a programming language used to express computer programs as algorithms
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word algol.
Examples
-
EDU by BU. EDU (1.99) Mon, 15 Jul 91 13: 39: 46 EDT Received: from algol. astro.
The Rules for the Operators in The.Plan by Jennifer Wesp (IRC) 1991
-
It's a hack by Bob Berner so he could write logic operators into algol.
chained_bear commented on the word algol
"Algol, or Medusa's Head, a fixed star of variable magnitude, situated in the constellation Perseus, and marked ß in our catalogues. Montanari was the first who observed the variations of this star; and, according to Mr. Goodricke, of York, the first astronomer who discovered the period of these variations; he found it to be repeated every 2 days, 20 hours, 48 minutes, and 56 seconds; and La Lande makes it 2 days, 20 hours, 49 minutes, and 2 second."
—Falconer's New Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1816), 7
October 13, 2008
seanahan commented on the word algol
Interesting, this is from the Arabic, Al Ghul, meaning, "The Ghoul", probably due to the varying brightness.
October 15, 2008