Definitions

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

  • noun A celestial body that orbits the sun and is massive enough to assume a nearly spherical shape, but that does not clear other bodies from the neighborhood around its orbit and is not a satellite of a planet.

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

  • noun astronomy Any astronomical body which has achieved hydrostatic equilibrium (which is the shape a body of water would take, as opposed to a small Solar System body), orbits the Sun (as opposed to a moon), and has not "cleared its neighbourhood" of competing bodies (as opposed to a planet).

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word dwarf planet.

Examples

    Sorry, no example sentences found.

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • The five objects that have so far been declared dwarf planets are Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake.

    The expression is grammatically unusual in that it is not a hyponym of its head: a dwarf planet is not a kind of planet. Most such expressions in English have to do with unreality of some kind (a fake Rembrandt is not a Rembrandt, a pretend dinosaur is not a dinosaur, an attempted coup is not a coup), or are lexically quirky (a Welsh rabbit is not a rabbit), or are named for rough biological resemblance (a sea anemone is not an anemone).

    March 27, 2009

  • A planet of miniature people. http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Dwarf_Planet

    Planet Kujal.

    July 20, 2015