nebula
noun
Simple meaning
An immense cloud of gas and dust in interstellar space.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
nehbyuhluhSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈnɛbjələ
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
astronomy
An immense cloud of gas (mainly hydrogen) and dust in interstellar space
astronomy
A cloud in outer space consisting of gas or dust (e.g. a cloud formed after a star explodes).
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Formality
- Technical
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An immense cloud of gas (mainly hydrogen) and dust in interstellar space
Used this way, nebula 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.
Share your sentence
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 collection of star systems.
A cluster of stars within an intricate cloud of gas and dust.
A nebula that was once thought to be a star with its planets but is now thought to be a very hot star surrounded by an expanding envelope of ionized gases that emit a fluorescent glow…
A galaxy having a spiral structure.
A remnant of a supernova detected first in 1054 AD.
A cluster of stars within an intricate cloud of gas and dust.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
The theory that the solar system evolved from a hot gaseous nebula.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “nebula” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
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.