Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Bible An angelic being who was cast from heaven as punishment for his rebellious pride. Lucifer is traditionally identified with Satan.
  • noun The planet Venus in its appearance as the morning star.
  • noun A friction match.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The morning star; the planet Venus when she appears in the morning before sunrise : when she follows the sun, or appears in the evening, she is called Hesperus, or the evening star. Applied by Isaiah figuratively to a king of Babylon.
  • noun The prince of darkness; Satan. [This use arises from an early opinion that in the above passage from Isaiah reference was made to Satan.]
  • noun [lowercase] A match ignitible by friction with any surface, or with a specially prepared surface.
  • noun The typical genus of Luciferidæ.
  • noun A genus of humming-birds.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The planet Venus, when appearing as the morning star; -- applied in Isaiah by a metaphor to a king of Babylon.
  • noun Hence, Satan.
  • noun A match{1} made of a sliver of wood tipped with a combustible substance, and ignited by friction; -- called also lucifer match, and locofoco, now most commonly referred to as a friction match. See Locofoco.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A genus of free-swimming macruran Crustacea, having a slender body and long appendages.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A figure mentioned in Isaiah 14:12, generally identified with Satan.
  • proper noun The planet Venus as the daystar.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (Judeo-Christian and Islamic religions) chief spirit of evil and adversary of God; tempter of mankind; master of Hell
  • noun lighter consisting of a thin piece of wood or cardboard tipped with combustible chemical; ignites with friction
  • noun a planet (usually Venus) seen just before sunrise in the eastern sky

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English, morning star, Lucifer, from Latin Lūcifer, from lūcifer, light-bringer : lūx, lūc-, light; see leuk- in Indo-European roots + -fer, -fer.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin Lūcifer, from lūx ("light") + ferō ("bear, carry").

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