Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or proceeding from the sun.
  • adjective Using or operated by energy derived from the sun.
  • adjective Determined or measured in reference to the sun.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of, pertaining or related to, or determined by the sun: as, the solar system; solar light; solar rays; solar influence.
  • In astrology, born under the predominant influence of the sun; influenced by the sun.
  • An electric lamp of the fourth class.
  • noun In Roman and early medieval houses, a terrace, or balcony, or a room much exposed to the sun; a sollar.
  • noun See sollar.
  • noun See sola.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from the sun. See Solar system, below.
  • adjective (Astrol.), obsolete Born under the predominant influence of the sun.
  • adjective Measured by the progress or revolution of the sun in the ecliptic.
  • adjective Produced by the action of the sun, or peculiarly affected by its influence.
  • adjective See under Cycle.
  • adjective See Day, 2.
  • adjective an engine in which the energy of solar heat is used to produce motion, as in evaporating water for a steam engine, or expanding air for an air engine.
  • adjective (Bot.) flowers which open and shut daily at certain hours.
  • adjective an argand lamp.
  • adjective a microscope consisting essentially, first, of a mirror for reflecting a beam of sunlight through the tube, which sometimes is fixed in a window shutter; secondly, of a condenser, or large lens, for converging the beam upon the object; and, thirdly, of a small lens, or magnifier, for throwing an enlarged image of the object at its focus upon a screen in a dark room or in a darkened box.
  • adjective See under Month.
  • adjective a paraffin oil used an illuminant and lubricant.
  • adjective (Physics) certain substances, as the diamond, siulphide of barium (Bolognese or Bologna phosphorus), calcium sulphide, etc., which become phosphorescent, and shine in the dark, after exposure to sunlight or other intense light.
  • adjective (Anat.) a nervous plexus situated in the dorsal and anterior part of the abdomen, consisting of several sympathetic ganglia with connecting and radiating nerve fibers; -- so called in allusion to the radiating nerve fibers.
  • adjective See Sun spots, under Sun.
  • adjective (Astron.) the sun, with the group of celestial bodies which, held by its attraction, revolve round it. The system comprises the major planets, with their satellites; the minor planets, or asteroids, and the comets; also, the meteorids, the matter that furnishes the zodiacal light, and the rings of Saturn. The satellites that revolve about the major planets are twenty-two in number, of which the Earth has one (see Moon.), Mars two, Jupiter five, Saturn nine, Uranus four, and Neptune one. The asteroids, between Mars and Jupiter, thus far discovered (1900), number about five hundred, the first four of which were found near the beginning of the century, and are called Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta.
  • adjective telegraph for signaling by flashes of reflected sunlight.
  • adjective See Apparent time, under Time.
  • noun obsolete A loft or upper chamber; a garret room.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from the sun; as, the solar system; solar light; solar rays; solar influence.
  • adjective astrology, obsolete Born under the predominant influence of the sun.
  • adjective Measured by the progress or revolution of the sun in the ecliptic; as, the solar year.
  • adjective Produced by the action of the sun, or peculiarly affected by its influence.
  • noun obsolete A loft or upper chamber forming the private accommodation of the head of the household in a medieval hall; a garret room.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective relating to or derived from the sun or utilizing the energies of the sun

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Latin sōlāris, from sōl, sun; see sāwel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English, from Latin sōlāris, from sōl ("sun"), from Proto-Indo-European *sóh₂wl̥ (“sun”).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English soler, solere, from Latin solarium.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word solar.

Examples

  • Fig 3/82 A variation of solar chimney with “solar air ramp” [2] 3.1.5.3 Passive cooling means

    3. Design rules 1993

  • Politics solarpvevents #solar: Politics may make future of solar energy

    Gaea Times (by Simple Thoughts) Breaking News and incisive views 24/7 2009

  • ‡ The term solar energy often refers to processes that use this energy to generate heat or electricity for human use.

    solar energy 2002

  • The term solar power describes almost any process that harnesses energy from the sun and then works by transforming this power into electricity, for example home solar power systems.

    EzineArticles 2010

  • The term solar power is used to describe energy gathered from the Sun's rays and converted into either heat or electricity.

    SEEDMAGAZINE.COM 2008

  • The term solar power is used to describe energy gathered from the Sun's rays and converted into either heat or electricity.

    SEEDMAGAZINE.COM 2008

  • Last week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a thousand-page report on the future of renewable energy, which it defined as solar, hydro, wind, tidal, wave, geothermal and biomass.

    Inconvenient Truths About 'Renewable' Energy Matt Ridley 2011

  • If you have hundreds of years of warning, you could spread chalk or charcoal over the surface that changes the way it reflects light and its velocity, or you could send what they call a solar sail -- a big sheet of Mylar-like plastic -- and sort of shrink-wrap it, and the sunlight over centuries would push it out of the way.

    It Came From Outer Space 2008

  • Right now, we're in the midst of what we call a solar maximum.

    CNN Transcript - Special Event: Millennium 2000: Weather - January 1, 2000 2000

  • His aim was to make still more exact our knowledge of the motions of the bodies constituting what we call the solar system, and his labors toward this end, begun more than thirty years ago, he continued almost until the day of his death.

    A Librarian's Open Shelf Arthur E. Bostwick

  • Before European subsidies began to dry up and Asian companies grew to dominate the solar market, Thalheim and its surrounding areas were the heartland of PV manufacturing, also known as Solar Valley.

    A new kind of solar cell is coming: is it the future of green energy? Mark Peplow 2023

  • However, the excess is most consistent with a signal from solar axions, a very light as-yet undetected particle, which is also a dark matter candidate.

    Dark matter hunt yields unexplained signal Paul RinconScience editor, BBC News website 2020

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • In castle architecture, private living quarters of the lord, usually adjacent to the great hall.

    August 26, 2008

  • I hadn't known the "private living quarters of the lord" sense of this word.

    As in: "I remember a church, and I think this is a manor house. I'm in a bedroom or a solar, and it's not just a loft because there are stairs, so that means the house of a minor baron at least."

    Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, p 116

    May 26, 2010