| Library / English Dictionary |
PLANET
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
(astronomy) any of the nine large celestial bodies in the solar system that revolve around the sun and shine by reflected light; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in order of their proximity to the sun; viewed from the constellation Hercules, all the planets rotate around the sun in a counterclockwise direction
Synonyms:
major planet; planet
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)
Hypernyms ("planet" is a kind of...):
celestial body; heavenly body (natural objects visible in the sky)
Meronyms (parts of "planet"):
biosphere (the regions of the surface and atmosphere of the Earth (or other planet) where living organisms exist)
Domain category:
astronomy; uranology (the branch of physics that studies celestial bodies and the universe as a whole)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "planet"):
inferior planet (any of the planets whose orbit lies inside the earth's orbit)
gas giant; Jovian planet (any of the four outermost planets in the solar system; much larger than Earth and gaseous in nature (like Jupiter))
daystar; Lucifer; morning star; Phosphorus (a planet (usually Venus) seen just before sunrise in the eastern sky)
outer planet ((astronomy) a major planet whose orbit is outside the asteroid belt (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto))
superior planet (any of the planets whose orbit lies outside the earth's orbit)
terrestrial planet (a planet having a compact rocky surface like the Earth's; the four innermost planets in the solar system)
Instance hyponyms:
evening star; Hesperus; Vesper (a planet (usually Venus) seen at sunset in the western sky)
Holonyms ("planet" is a member of...):
solar system (the sun with the celestial bodies that revolve around it in its gravitational field)
Derivation:
planetal; planetary (of or relating to or resembling the physical or orbital characteristics of a planet or the planets)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Any celestial body (other than comets or satellites) that revolves around a star
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)
Hypernyms ("planet" is a kind of...):
celestial body; heavenly body (natural objects visible in the sky)
Derivation:
planetal (of or relating to or resembling the physical or orbital characteristics of a planet or the planets)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A person who follows or serves another
Synonyms:
planet; satellite
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("planet" is a kind of...):
follower (a person who accepts the leadership of another)
Context examples:
An international team of astronomers discovered an exoplanet, called NGTS-1b, revolving around M-dwarf star NGTS-1, that the team said does not fit existing notions of how stars and planets form.
(Astronomers report dwarf star with unexpectedly giant planet, Wikinews)
The albedo of the planet increases, reflecting more solar energy back into space.
(Climatic feedback mechanisms, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)
This newly discovered huge structure around the system may have implications for what this yet-unseen planetary system looks like around the 8-million-year-old star, which is in its formative years of planet construction.
(Hubble Finds Huge System of Dusty Material Enveloping the Young Star HR 4796A, NASA)
She is the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
South America is a place I love, and I think, if you take it right through from Darien to Fuego, it's the grandest, richest, most wonderful bit of earth upon this planet.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“Yes,” added the other; “and of the Roman emperors as low as Severus; besides a great deal of the heathen mythology, and all the metals, semi-metals, planets, and distinguished philosophers.”
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
The poem swung in majestic rhythm to the cool tumult of interstellar conflict, to the onset of starry hosts, to the impact of cold suns and the flaming up of nebulae in the darkened void; and through it all, unceasing and faint, like a silver shuttle, ran the frail, piping voice of man, a querulous chirp amid the screaming of planets and the crash of systems.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
A set of three observations with the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera shows Beagle 2 partially deployed on the surface of the planet, ending the mystery of what happened to the mission more than a decade ago.
('Lost' 2003 Mars Lander Found by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, NASA)
Work is the best antidote to sorrow, my dear Watson, said he; and I have a piece of work for us both to-night which, if we can bring it to a successful conclusion, will in itself justify a man’s life on this planet.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
They have likewise discovered two lesser stars, or satellites, which revolve about Mars; whereof the innermost is distant from the centre of the primary planet exactly three of his diameters, and the outermost, five; the former revolves in the space of ten hours, and the latter in twenty-one and a half; so that the squares of their periodical times are very near in the same proportion with the cubes of their distance from the centre of Mars; which evidently shows them to be governed by the same law of gravitation that influences the other heavenly bodies.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
