Aldebaran

noun

Al·​deb·​a·​ran al-ˈde-bə-rən 

: a red star of the first magnitude that is seen in the eye of Taurus and is the brightest star in the Hyades

Examples of Aldebaran in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

That will be Aldebaran, marking the angry right eye of Taurus. — Joe Rao, Space.com, 10 July 2026

Saturday, July 11Before dawn, a 13%-lit waning crescent moon appears close to Mars and Aldebaran in Taurus, with the Pleiades star cluster nearby. — Jamie Carter, Forbes.com, 1 July 2026

Examples include words like alcohol, alkali, alchemy, and in astronomy, star names such as Altair, Alkaid, Alcor and Aldebaran. — Scott Neuman, NPR, 11 June 2026

In ancient Persian astronomy, Regulus was revered as one of the four Royal Stars, alongside Aldebaran, Fomalhaut and Antares. — Valerie Mesa, PEOPLE, 26 Jan. 2026

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Medieval Latin, borrowed from Arabic al-dabarān, probably a name for the Hyades star cluster

Note: Arabic usage is not uniform in regard to whether al-dabarān is to be interpreted as the star α Tauri, or the entire Hyades star cluster, though the phrase in the Almagest, translating Ptolemy's Greek text, suggests the latter. Arabic authors took dabarān as a derivative of the root d-b-r, with meanings related to "back" (hence dabarī "trailing behind"), on the grounds that the Hyades, along with α Tauri, trailed behind or followed the Pleiades. This has the appearance of an after-the-fact etymology, however, and dabarān may be a pre-Islamic name for the cluster, of unknown origin. See Paul Kunitzsch, Arabische Sternnamen in Europa (Wiesbaden, 1959) pp. 109-10.

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

Aldebaran

noun

Al·​deb·​a·​ran al-ˈdeb-ə-rən 

: a very bright red star in Taurus