galaxy

noun

gal·​axy ˈga-lək-sē 

plural galaxies

1

a

often capitalized : milky way galaxy

—used with the

b

: any of the very large groups of stars and associated matter that are found throughout the universe

2

a

: an assemblage of brilliant or notable persons or things

a galaxy of artists

b

: world sense 11

remained galaxies apart on the issue

—Newsweek

Did you know?

The system of stars that includes our sun looks, in the night sky, like a broad band of light. We call this band the Milky Way. The idea of the whiteness of the Milky Way being similar to that of milk is much older than the English language, however. Galaxias, the Greek word for the Milky Way, was derived from the Greek gala, “milk.” English galaxy, derived from Greek galaxias, was not used until the 19th century as a generic term for other star systems as well as the one in which we live.

Synonyms

• light-year
• world

Examples of galaxy in a Sentence

The event was attended by a galaxy of artists.

they're a galaxy apart when it comes to politics

Recent Examples on the Web

As the team reviewed findings from the agency’s Gaia Mission, which is building a 3D map of our galaxy, something unusual caught their attention: a wobbling star some 1,926 light-years away. —Christian Thorsberg, Smithsonian Magazine, 17 Apr. 2024

Gaia’s ongoing mission is to construct the most detailed three-dimensional map of our galaxy. —George Dvorsky / Gizmodo, Quartz, 16 Apr. 2024

The stage was huge but spare, lit with whites and greys at first, but gradually introduced more color and interstellar visuals, and by the end featured glorious galaxies and stars and wild lighting treatments. —Jem Aswad, Variety, 15 Apr. 2024

At one supernova per 50 years, and with 100 billion galaxies in the universe, somewhere in the universe a supernova explodes every hundredth of a second. —Chris Impey, Discover Magazine, 8 Apr. 2024

Between Sun Chips and Moon Pies, galaxy cakes and Milky Ways, people are finding all sorts of ways to add more excitement to their total solar eclipse experience on April 8, 2024. —Kylie Martin, Detroit Free Press, 2 Apr. 2024

The out-of-this-world slushy is flavored with cotton candy and dragon fruit and topped with white soft serve and blue and purple galaxy sprinkles. —Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 29 Mar. 2024

This endeavor will yield 60 petabytes of data on the composition of the universe, the nature and distribution of dark matter, dark energy and the expansion of the universe, the formation of our galaxy, our intimate little solar system, and more. —Isaac Schultz / Gizmodo, Quartz, 3 Apr. 2024

In 2020, the astrophysicist Andrea Ghez, of the University of California, Los Angeles, and a colleague received a Nobel for having tracked the path of objects near the center of our galaxy in sufficient detail to indicate that there must be a supermassive black hole there. —Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker, 30 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Middle English galaxias, galaxie, borrowed from Late Latin galaxias, borrowed from Greek galaxías (probably originally conjoined with kýklos "wheel"), from galakt-, stem of gála "milk" (going back to Indo-European *glkt-, attested elsewhere only in Latin lact-, lac "milk," Armenian kat'n) + -ias, noun suffix, especially of natural phenomena

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing galaxy

• elliptical galaxy
• Milky Way galaxy
• radio galaxy
• satellite galaxy
• Seyfert galaxy
• spiral galaxy

Kids Definition

galaxy

noun

gal·​axy ˈgal-ək-sē 

plural galaxies

1

: milky way galaxy

2

: one of the very large groups of stars and other matter that are found throughout the universe

Etymology

Middle English galaxie "the Milky Way," from Latin galaxias (same meaning), from Greek galaxias "Milky Way," from galakt-, gala "milk"