Definitions

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

  • noun Greek Mythology The earliest supreme god, a personification of the sky, who was the son and consort of Gaea and the father of the Cyclopes and Titans.
  • noun The seventh planet from the sun, revolving about it every 84.01 years at a mean distance of approximately 2.9 billion kilometers (1.8 billion miles), having a mean equatorial diameter of 51,118 kilometers (31,763 miles) and a mass 14.6 times that of Earth.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In classical mythology, the son of Ge or Gaia (the Earth), and by her the father of the Titans, Cyclopes, etc.
  • noun In astronomy, the outermost but one of the planets, appearing to the naked eye as a faint star.
  • noun that of the earth; its density is therefore about 1.4, being a little more than that of Jupiter. It is about 19.2 times as far from the sun as the earth is; and its period of revolution is about eighty-four years and one week. It has four satellites—Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberou—of which the first two are extremely difficult telescopic objects. They revolve in one plane nearly perpendicular to that of the orbit of the planet.

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

  • noun (Gr. Myth.) The son or husband of Gaia (Earth), and father of Chronos (Time) and the Titans.
  • noun (Astron.) One of the primary planets. It is about 1,800,000,000 miles from the sun, about 36,000 miles in diameter, and its period of revolution round the sun is nearly 84 of our years.

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

  • proper noun Greek mythology The god of the sky and heavens, son and husband to Gaia, with whom he fathered the Titans and the Cyclops
  • proper noun The seventh planet in our solar system, with twenty-seven known moons, discovered in 1781 by Sir William Herschel.

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

  • noun (Greek mythology) god of the heavens; son and husband of Gaea and father of the Titans in ancient mythology
  • noun a giant planet with a ring of ice particles; the 7th planet from the sun has a blue-green color and many satellites

Etymologies

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

[Late Latin Ūranus, from Greek ouranos, heaven, the god Uranus, Sense 2, from New Latin Ūranus, since Uranus was Saturn's father just as Saturn was Jupiter's father (thus making the order of the planets' names reflect mythological genealogy).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek Οὐρανός (Ouranos), from οὐρανός (ouranos, "sky, heaven")

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Examples

  • Don't forget::: Planet Uranus is yet another of the god's geographic clues, tilted on its axis.

    Saturday morning rant (story v language) lili 2008

  • He, as we are informed by tradition, was begotten of Uranus, rightly so called (apo tou oran ta ano) from looking upwards; which, as philosophers tell us, is the way to have a pure mind, and the name Uranus is therefore correct.

    The CRATYLUS Plato 1975

  • He, as we are informed by tradition, was begotten of Uranus, rightly so called (apo tou oran ta ano) from looking upwards; which, as philosophers tell us, is the way to have a pure mind, and the name Uranus is therefore correct.

    Cratylus 427? BC-347? BC Plato 1855

  • Their sheer number commands our attention; the fact that Aquarius is ruled by Uranus, which is highlighted now because of its placement in Pisces along with the Sun, adds pressure along with electric intensity.

    Spiritual Thoughts and Deeds 2009

  • I did a little research (for the benefit of mankind, naturally) and you can look up the film under the title Uranus Experiment (here, where I live, they translated it as Project Uranus).

    POLL RESULTS: Blue Sci-Fi Babes 2007

  • Then it's 4 o'clock in the morning, and I have them in a club called Uranus, on "risk night," musclemen making out with musclemen and models making out with beautiful models, and Winston Groom looks at George and says, "George, can you explain to me why people are fighting to get into a place like this?"

    An Oral History of George Plimpton: The Man Does Everything Rather Well 1997

  • Then it's 4 o'clock in the morning, and I have them in a club called Uranus, on "risk night," musclemen making out with musclemen and models making out with beautiful models, and Winston Groom looks at George and says, "George, can you explain to me why people are fighting to get into a place like this?"

    An Oral History of George Plimpton: The Man Does Everything Rather Well 1997

  • As a mere beginning, he doubled the diameter of the solar system by observing the great outlying planet which we now call Uranus, but which he christened Georgium Sidus, in honor of his sovereign, and which his French contemporaries, not relishing that name, preferred to call Herschel.

    A History of Science: in Five Volumes. Volume III: Modern development of the physical sciences 1904

  • The conscientious care and assiduous industry with which Herschel made his measurements of the diameter of the Georgium Sidus (now called Uranus), and his interesting observations of other planets, of double stars with their coloured light, of cometary and nebulous appearances, were truly remarkable; as may be seen by the various papers which he wrote at this time for the Royal Society.

    The Story of the Herschels Anonymous 1886

  • Two other mighty planets, known as Uranus and Neptune, must thus be added to the five already mentioned, making in all a group of seven great planets.

    The Story of the Heavens 1876

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