| Library / English Dictionary |
HALO
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Irregular inflected form: haloes
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An indication of radiant light drawn around the head of a saint
Synonyms:
aura; aureole; gloriole; glory; halo; nimbus
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("halo" is a kind of...):
light; lightness (the visual effect of illumination on objects or scenes as created in pictures)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A circle of light around the sun or moon
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural phenomena
Hypernyms ("halo" is a kind of...):
atmospheric phenomenon (a physical phenomenon associated with the atmosphere)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "halo"):
parhelic circle; parhelic ring; solar halo (a luminous halo parallel to the horizon at the altitude of the sun; caused by ice crystals in the atmosphere)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A toroidal shape
Example:
a halo of smoke
Synonyms:
anchor ring; annulus; doughnut; halo; ring
Classified under:
Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes
Hypernyms ("halo" is a kind of...):
toroid (the doughnut-shaped object enclosed by a torus)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "halo"):
fairy circle; fairy ring (a ring of fungi marking the periphery of the perennial underground growth of the mycelium)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Present simple (first person singular and plural, second person singular and plural, third person plural) of the verb halo
Context examples:
A chronic, atrophic skin disease characterized by white, angular, flat, well-defined, indurated papules with an erythematous halo and follicular, black, keratotic plugs.
(Lichen Sclerosus et Atrophicus, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)
The dark matter concentrations detected by Hubble are 1/10,000th to 1/100,000th times the mass of the Milky Way's dark matter halo.
(Cosmic Magnifying Glasses Find Dark Matter in Small Clumps, NASA)
In this purplish light Wolf Larsen’s face glowed and glowed, and to my excited fancy he appeared encircled by a halo.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
The lobster was instantly surrounded by a halo of pleasing reminiscences, and curiosity about 'the charming young ladies' diverted his mind from the comical mishap.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Common symptoms are: • Blurry vision • Colors that seem faded • Glare - headlights, lamps or sunlight may seem too bright. You may also see a halo around lights. • Not being able to see well at night • Double vision • Frequent prescription changes in your eye wear
(Cataract, NIH: National Eye Institute)
It was a leaf-shaped sheet of glass bearing upon it a face with a halo round it, so delicately outlined, and of so perfect a tint, that it might have been indeed a human face which gazed with sad and thoughtful eyes upon the young squire.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Such a man has a double existence: he may suffer misery and be overwhelmed by disappointments, yet when he has retired into himself, he will be like a celestial spirit that has a halo around him, within whose circle no grief or folly ventures.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
When we returned to Mrs. Warren’s rooms, the gloom of a London winter evening had thickened into one grey curtain, a dead monotone of colour, broken only by the sharp yellow squares of the windows and the blurred haloes of the gas-lamps.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
This suggests that 3 to 4 billion years after the Big Bang, the gas in galaxies had already efficiently condensed into flat, rotating discs, while the dark matter halos surrounding them were much larger and more spread out.
(Dark Matter Less Influential in Galaxies in Early Universe, ESO)
The consequences of the increased pressure may be manifested in a variety of symptoms, depending upon type and severity, such as excavation of the optic disk, hardness of the eyeball, corneal anesthesia, reduced visual acuity, seeing of colored halos around lights, disturbed dark adaptation, visual field defects, and headaches.
(Glaucoma, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)
