sidereal
adjective
Simple meaning
Of or about the stars or constellations.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sidihreeuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɪˈdɪɹiəl
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.
adjective
Of or relating to the stars or constellations
astronomy
Relating to a measurement of time relative to the position of the stars.
astronomy
Relating to a measurement of time relative to the point of the vernal equinox.
of divisions of time
Determined by daily motion of the stars
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
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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.
The time for one complete rotation of the earth relative to a particular star, about 4 minutes shorter than a mean solar day.
1/24 of a sidereal day.
Period between successive conjunctions with a star, 27.322 days.
Measured by the diurnal motion of stars.
The time for the earth to make one complete revolution around the sun, relative to the fixed stars.
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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.