red dwarf

noun

: a star having substantially lower surface temperature, intrinsic luminosity, mass, and size than the sun

Examples of red dwarf in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Emitting little to no visible light, the pair of brown dwarfs Bab is around 1,000 times fainter than their parent binary red dwarfs and can only be observed in infrared. Robert Lea, Space.com, 22 Aug. 2025 The problem with hunting for planets orbiting a G2 star is the same reason that most exoplanets have been found swinging around red dwarfs. David Szondy august 14, New Atlas, 14 Aug. 2025 Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope found a planet while observing Alpha Centauri, a system of three stars orbiting each other — binary stars Alpha Centauri A and B, along with the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri. Jamie Carter, Forbes.com, 9 Aug. 2025 And the star and its two companions, the slightly smaller Alpha Centauri B and the tiny red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, comprise the nearest stellar system to our own—just about four and a half light-years away. Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 7 Aug. 2025 See All Example Sentences for red dwarf

Word History

First Known Use

1926, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of red dwarf was in 1926

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Cite this Entry

“Red dwarf.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/red%20dwarf. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.

Kids Definition

red dwarf

noun
: a star having much lower surface temperature, brightness, mass, and size than the sun

More from Merriam-Webster on red dwarf

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