starlight

star·light | \ ˈstär-ˌlīt

How to pronounce starlight (audio)

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Definition of starlight

: the light given by the stars

Examples of starlight in a Sentence

We had to find our way by starlight.

Recent Examples on the Web One hundred years ago, astronomers captured the light of stars behind the sun during a total solar eclipse, proving that the sun had bent the starlight and validating Albert Einstein’s new theories of gravity. — Adam Glanzman, Smithsonian, "Meet the Global Team That Captured the First Image of a Black Hole," 19 Nov. 2019 This will cause the frequency of the starlight arriving at Earth to oscillate (that is, the star will change colour slightly) in the same way that the frequency of an ambulance siren shifts as the vehicle passes by. — The Economist, "Batteries, exoplanets, cosmology and cell biology win Nobel laurels," 12 Oct. 2019 Stars that aren’t entirely snuffed out appear redder when their starlight filters through dust, much as sunsets appear orange when sunlight has to plow through more of Earth’s atmosphere. — Charlie Wood, Popular Science, "The biggest gaseous structure in our galaxy is filled with baby star factories," 8 Jan. 2020 One technology that isn't on the list but that has emerged in full force is the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), an array of radio telescopes that captured the world's first picture of a black hole—a fiery ring of starlight surrounding a dark center. — Curtis Brainard, Scientific American, "The Tech Horizon," 15 Dec. 2019 And outside the window, air traffic flows on peaceful through the starlight city. — Darren Franich, EW.com, "Revenge of the Sith," 3 Dec. 2019 In many instances, our line of sight is aligned so that telescopes on Earth can detect the tiny dips in starlight as an exoplanet transits its host star. — Andrew Fazekas, National Geographic, "See Mercury glide across the sun in rare sky show," 8 Nov. 2019 The planet was discovered orbiting the WASP 49 star in 2012 via the transit method, which is when an exoplanet passes in front of its star, causing detectable dips in starlight. — Ashley Strickland, CNN, "Scientists may have found a fiery exomoon that's like a volcanic planet from 'Star Wars'," 5 Sep. 2019 The study of variable stars entered boom times in 2009 with the launch of the Kepler telescope, which looked for small aberrations in starlight as a sign of distant planets. — Quanta Magazine, "Strange Stars Pulse to the Golden Mean," 10 Mar. 2015

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'starlight.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Dictionary Entries near starlight

stark staring mad

star-leaved gum

Statistics for starlight

Last Updated

12 Feb 2020

Cite this Entry

“Starlight.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/starlight. Accessed 17 Feb. 2020.

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