ephemeris
noun
Simple meaning
An annual publication containing astronomical tables that give the positions of the celestial bodies throughout the year.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihfehmerisSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪˈfɛmɚɪs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
astronomynautical
An annual publication containing astronomical tables that give the positions of the celestial bodies throughout the year
astronomynautical
A table giving the apparent position of celestial bodies throughout the year; normally given as right ascension and declination.
Computer software that calculates the apparent position of celestial bodies.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An annual publication containing astronomical tables that give the positions of the celestial bodies throughout the year
Used this way, ephemeris is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A measure of time defined by Earth's orbital motion.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- astronomynoun
- astronomernoun
- atomicadjective
- almanacnoun
- astrologynoun
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.