great attractor
noun
Simple meaning
A massive grouping of galaxies in the direction of Centaurus and Hydra whose gravitational attraction is believed to cause deviations in the paths of other galaxies.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
graytuhtrakterSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡɹeɪtətɹæktɚ
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
A massive grouping of galaxies in the direction of Centaurus and Hydra whose gravitational attraction is believed to cause deviations in the paths of other galaxies
astronomy
A region of gravitational attraction in intergalactic space and the apparent central gravitational point of the Laniakea Supercluster of galaxies.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: A massive grouping of galaxies in the direction of Centaurus and Hydra whose gravitational attraction is believed to cause deviations in the paths of other galaxies
Used this way, great attractor is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in technical or specialist writing contexts.
- 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
- 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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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.