galaxy

galaxy

See also: Galaxy

English

The spiral galaxy NGC 1672

Alternative forms

• (Milky Way Galaxy): Galaxy

Etymology

From Middle English galaxye, galaxie, from Old French galaxie, from Latin galaxias, from Ancient Greek γαλαξίας (galaxías, “Milky Way”), from γάλα (gála, “milk”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɡaləksi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡæləksi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

galaxy (plural galaxies)

1. (now rare) The Milky Way; the apparent band of concentrated stars which appears in the night sky over earth. [from 14th c.]
   • 1633, John Donne, Sapho to Philænis:

     So may thy cheekes red outweare scarlet dye, / And their white, whitenesse of the Galaxie [...].

2. (astronomy) Any of the collections of many millions or billions of stars, galactic dust, black holes, etc. existing as independent and coherent systems, of which there are billions in the known universe. [from 19th c.]
3. (figuratively) An assemblage of things or people seen as luminous or brilliant.
4. (fashion, design) Any print or pattern reminiscent of a galaxy, generally consisting of blending, semiopaque patches of vibrant color on a dark background.
   • 2016, Reyna Young, Hanover Falls‎, page 42:

     Her walls and ceiling were covered with galaxy wallpaper; it was like stepping into space.

   • 2017, Rebekah L. Purdy, Incriminating Dating‎:

     Her nerdy glasses sat perched on her face, and she wore a May the Force Be With You T-shirt with a black lace skirt, galaxy leggings, and a pair of white Star Wars Vans.

   • 2018, Isabel Scheck, Survival‎, page 15:

     She hurriedly said that she found an^[sic] faded galaxy blanket. She loved galaxy patterned things.

Synonyms

• (astronomy): G (abbreviation), star city, trichiliocosm (in Buddhism)

Hyponyms

• active galaxy
• dark galaxy
• dwarf galaxy
• elliptical galaxy
• irregular galaxy
• lenticular galaxy
• low-surface-brightness galaxy
• Seyfert galaxy
• spiral galaxy
• starburst galaxy
• type-cD galaxy
• ultra diffuse galaxy
• whirlpool galaxy

 

Derived terms

• barred spiral galaxy
• cluster of galaxies
• dwarf spheroidal galaxy
• filament of galaxies
• flocculent spiral galaxy
• galactic
• galaxy-brain
• galaxy brain
• galaxy cluster
• galaxy filament
• galaxy group
• galaxy nucleus
• galaxy sheet
• galaxy wall
• galaxy-wide
• giant radio galaxy
• green pea galaxy
• jellyfish galaxy
• Markarian galaxy
• pea galaxy
• radio galaxy
• red nugget galaxy
• sheet of galaxies
• submillimeter galaxy
• superluminous spiral galaxy
• wall of galaxies

 

Descendants

• → Swahili: galaksi

Translations

the Milky Way — see Milky Way

collection of billions of stars, galactic dust, black holes, etc

Albanian: galaktikë (sq) f Arabic: مَجَرَّة‎ f (majarra) Armenian: գալակտիկա (hy) (galaktika), ծիրկաթին (hy) (cirkatʿin) Asturian: galaxa f Azerbaijani: qalaktika Bashkir: галактика (galaktika) Basque: galaxia (eu) Belarusian: гала́ктыка (be) f (haláktyka) Bengali: ছায়াপথ (chayapôthô) Breton: galaksienn (br) f Bulgarian: гала́ктика (bg) f (galáktika) Burmese: ဂယ်လက်ဆီ (gailakhci) Buryat: галактика (galaktika) Catalan: galàxia (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 恆星系／恒星系 (zh) (héngxīngxì), 群星 (zh) (qúnxīng), 星系 (zh) (xīngxì) Cornish: galaksi m Czech: galaxie (cs) f Danish: galakse (da) Dutch: sterrenstelsel (nl) n Esperanto: galaksio Estonian: galaktika Faroese: stjørnugrús f Finnish: galaksi (fi), tähtikunta French: galaxie (fr) f Friulian: galassie f Galician: galaxia (gl) f Georgian: გალაქტიკა (galakṭiḳa) German: Galaxie (de) f, Galaxis (de) f, Welteninsel (de) f Greek: γαλαξίας (el) m (galaxías) Hebrew: גָּלַקְסְיָה‎ f (galáksia) Hindi: गैलेक्सी f (gaileksī), आकाशगंगा (hi) f (ākāśgaṅgā), कहकशाँ (hi) m (kahakśā̃), छायापथ (hi) m (chāyāpath) Hungarian: galaxis (hu), csillagváros (hu) Icelandic: stjörnuþoka (is) f, vetrarbraut (is) f Ido: galaxio (io) Indonesian: galaksi (id) Ingush: гӏалактик (ğalaktik) Interlingua: galaxia Irish: réaltra m Italian: galassia (it) f Japanese: 銀河 (ja) (ぎんが, ginga), 銀河系 (ja) (ぎんがけい, gingakei), 星雲 (ja) (せいうん, seiun) Javanese: galaksi Kazakh: галактика (galaktika) Khmer: តារាវលី (taaraavĕəʼlii), ចក្ររាសី (km) (cakkraʼ riəsəy), កាឡាក់ស៊ី (km) (kaalaksii) Korean: 은하(銀河) (ko) (eunha), 은하계(銀河系) (ko) (eunhagye) Kyrgyz: галактика (galaktika) Lao: ກາເລັກຊີ (lo) (kā lek sī) Latin: galaxias m Latvian: galaktika f Lithuanian: galaktika (lt) f Macedonian: галаксија f (galaksija) Malay: galaksi, cakerawala (ms) Maltese: galassja f Manx: ard-chruinnaght f Mongolian: галактик (mn) (galaktik) Navajo: sǫʼ dah shijaaʼ, yáʼąąh honíkáán Norman: galaxie f Norwegian: galakse (no) m Pashto: کهکشان‎ (ps) m (kahkašãn) Persian: کهکشان‎ (fa) (kahkašân) Middle Persian: 𐭥𐭠𐭮 𐭩 𐭪𐭠𐭩𐭥𐭮𐭠𐭭𐭩‎ (rāh ī kāyōsān) Polish: galaktyka (pl) f Portuguese: galáxia (pt) f Romanian: galaxie (ro) f Romansch: galaxia Russian: гала́ктика (ru) f (galáktika) Sanskrit: आकाशगङ्गा (sa) f (ākāśagaṅgā) Scottish Gaelic: Slighe Chlann Uisnich f Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: гала̀ксија f Roman: galàksija (sh) f Sinhalese: මන්දාකිණි (mandākiṇi) Slovak: galaxia (sk) f Slovene: galaksija (sl) f Spanish: galaxia (es) f Swahili: galaksi Swedish: galax (sv) Tagalog: galaksiya, sanlibutan Tajik: галактика (galaktika), каҳкашон (tg) (kahkašon) Tatar: галактика (ğalaqtika) Thai: ดาราจักร (th) (daa-raa-jàk), กาแล็กซี (th) (gaa-lɛ́k-sîi) Turkish: galaksi (tr), gök ada (tr) Turkmen: galaktika Ukrainian: гала́ктика f (haláktyka) Urdu: کہکشاں‎ f (kahkaśā̃) Uyghur: گالاكتىكا‎ (galaktika) Uzbek: galaktika (uz) Vietnamese: thiên hà (vi) (天河) Volapük: galaxid (vo), (obsolete) galaxüt Welsh: galaeth f Yiddish: גאַלאַקטיק‎ f (galaktik)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Latin: (please verify) galactia f

Verb

galaxy (third-person singular simple present galaxies, present participle galaxying, simple past and past participle galaxied)

1. To furnish with galaxies.
   • 1836, anonymous, “The Victim Bride: A Tale of Monadnock” in The Philadelphia Visiter, volume 1, number 14, page 53:

     […] how he struggled at one time like a desperate man fiercly ^[sic] grappling with his mortal foe, and at another like a sanguine lover and noble minded youth, as the cliffy rocks impeded his progress, or dimmed the view he had caught of an aperture, through which the galaxied firmament was seen in its purity and holiness glowing with diamonds and saphires; […]

   • 1838, John Edmund Reade, Italy: a poem, in six parts, page 138:

     In dazzling light expands the mighty Dome:
     Mirror of Heaven,—but Heaven when she doth wear
     All galaxied with Stars her flashing hair!

   • 2018, Adrian G. R. Scott, “A Canticle to Creatureliness” in A Night Sea Journey:

     To be dwarfed in a galaxied sky,
     doming, arcing, and revolving over
     The little space I briefly occupy.

2. (archaic) To gather together into a luminous whole.
   • 1702, Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana, book 3, part 4 (“Remains: or, Shorter Accounts of Sundry Divines”), chapter 1 (“Remains of the Firſt Claſſis”), page 213:

     Let all their Vertues then be Galaxied into this one indiſtinct Luſtre, they were Faithful Servants of Chriſt, and Sufferers for their being ſo.

   • 1841, Edgar Allan Poe, “Review of New Books” in Graham’s Magazine, volume 18, number 5, page 249:

     The brilliancies on one page of Lalla Roohk ^[sic] would have sufficed to establish that very reputation which has been in a great measure self-dimned by the galaxied lustre of the entire book.

   • 1844, Horace Smith, Arthur Arundel: A Tale of the English Revolution, volume 1, page 172:

     How dazzling must their brightness be when they are galaxied in a single bosom!

References

• galaxy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia