Definitions

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

  • noun A binary star in the constellation Canis Minor, approximately 11 light years from Earth.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An ancient constellation: same as Canis Minor. See Canis.
  • noun The principal star of the constellation Canis Minor, the eighth brightest in the heavens.
  • noun In zoology, the typical genus of the family Procyonidæ, and the only genus of the subfamily Procyoninæ, founded by Storr in 1784, containing the racoons. See cut under racoon.

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

  • noun (Astron.) A star of the first magnitude in the constellation Canis Minor, or the Little Dog.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A genus of mammals including the raccoon.

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

  • proper noun A taxonomic genus within the family Procyonidae — the raccoons.
  • proper noun astronomy A star in the constellation Canis Minor; Alpha (α) Canis Minoris. The eighth brightest star in the night sky.

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

  • noun the type genus of the family Procyonidae: raccoons
  • noun the brightest star in Canis Minor

Etymologies

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

[Latin Procyōn, from Greek Prokuōn : pro-, before; see pro– + kuōn, dog; see kwon- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin Procyōn, from Ancient Greek Προκύων (Prokuōn), from πρό (pro, "before") + κύων (kuōn, "dog"), in reference to it preceding the "Dog Star" Sirius.

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