Definitions

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

  • noun A star that suddenly increases in luminosity and then gradually returns to its original brightness over a period of weeks to years.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A ‘new’ or temporary star; a star which makes its appearance suddenly and gradually fades away, the whole decline generally occupying some years and leaving the star still visible in large telescopes. About twenty such stars have thus far been recorded.

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

  • noun (Astron.) A star which suddenly increases in brightness thousands of times, then fades back to near its original intensity. It may appear as a “new” star if its original brightness was too low for routine observation. A star which suddenly increases in brightness to many millions of times its original intensity is a supernova, and the postulated mechanisms for the increases of brightness of novae and supernovae are different.

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

  • noun astronomy Any sudden brightening of a previously inconspicuous star.

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

  • noun a star that ejects some of its material in the form of a cloud and become more luminous in the process

Etymologies

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

[New Latin (stēlla) nova, new (star), nova, feminine of Latin novus, new; see newo- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Feminine nominative singular of the Latin adjective novus (new). The feminine is used since the Latin word for star, stella is feminine; thus nova is a shortening of nova stella (new star).

Support

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

Examples

  • (NOH-vuh) In astronomy, the appearance of a new star in the sky (nova is Latin for “new”).

    nova 2002

  • Benelli makes high dollar shotguns and they're the best made in my opinion. the super nova is my answer.

    Benelli VS. 2009

  • Although a nova is much less energetic than a supernova, if recurrent novas are not violent enough to expel more gas than is falling in, mass will accumulate onto the white dwarf star until it passes its Chandrasekhar limit.

    Dawn Before Nova | My[confined]Space 2009

  • The lux nova is both Christ and the physical light that filled his new church, and its brightness is a reference to claritas, and so, to its beauty.

    The Theology and Metaphysics of the Gothic Cathedral - part 3 2009

  • Hehe there are sane people here in no. va … I think nova is one of the more moderate parts of va ..

    Think Progress » Virginians Buck Far-Right Policies Of McDonnell And Cuccinelli 2010

  • Benelli makes high dollar shotguns and they're the best made in my opinion. the super nova is my answer.

    Benelli VS. 2009

  • While the benneli nova is a damn fine gun in its own respect, and the blackeagles are too, with alot of autoloaders you cant just put any old crap 12 gauge in their and expect it to fire.

    The Gun Nut Survey: A highly biased, unofficial poll of 2,000 readers on all things shooting 2006

  • The leading theory of how our sun formed is called the Nebular Hypothesis Tarbuck and Lutgens 1993, 10, When a massive star “dies,” it collapses back upon itself and explodes, becoming what is called a nova.

    The Source John Clayton Nils Jansma 2001

  • The leading theory of how our sun formed is called the Nebular Hypothesis Tarbuck and Lutgens 1993, 10, When a massive star “dies,” it collapses back upon itself and explodes, becoming what is called a nova.

    The Source John Clayton Nils Jansma 2001

  • i live in nova Scotia and well it would be pretty hard for me to get across Canada ..

    Twilight Lexicon » Canadian Twilight Convention 2009

Comments

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

  • A false false friend. From Wikipedia:

    "A popular urban legend asserts that the Nova sold poorly in Latin America because the phrase no va means "doesn't go" in Spanish. In reality, if a Spanish-speaking person were to say that his car was not working, he would more likely use the terms no marcha or no funciona, ("does not run" or "does not work/function", respectively) instead, just as an English-speaking person would be more likely to say "this car doesn't work", than say "this car doesn't go." The word nova, as opposed to no va, exists in Spanish with the same meaning as in English. Also, the Spanish word for "new" (nuevo or nueva) is a cognate to nova, which originally meant "new" in Latin."

    January 11, 2008

  • mr dontcry has a 1971 Nova in My Garage. He has formed a band of friends, the "Nova Knights" for "Nova Night" - each Friday night in My Garage. They are supposed to be working on rebuilding the old rustbucket -- I mean the classic car... I get the feeling that I will never be able to park My Car in My Garage... *wah*

    December 5, 2009

  • "A kilonova is about 1,000 times brighter than a nova, which is caused by the eruption of a white dwarf. The self-detonation of a massive star, a supernova, can be as much as 100 times brighter than a kilonova"

    http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/august/nasas-hubble-finds-telltale-fireball-after-gamma-ray-burst/#.Uf2tE9eYnld

    August 4, 2013

  • nova, kilonova, supernova, and hypernova can all be used as verbs.

    April 18, 2018