luminaries

noun

plural of luminary
1
as in stars
a ball-shaped gaseous celestial body that shines by its own light awed by the vast number of luminaries in the night sky

Synonyms & Similar Words

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2
as in celebrities
a person who is widely known and usually much talked about luminaries from the worlds of sports, entertainment, and politics were at the gala

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of luminaries Witchy and worldly, with a tendency to name-drop the luminaries she’s encountered on her travels, the grande dame is Sybylla’s first example of a woman who chose her own way and has been rewarded for it. — Inkoo Kang, New Yorker, 10 Sep. 2026 Burning Man, the week-long festival that takes place in the middle of the Nevada desert and draws many luminaries from the tech industry, prides itself on building community. — Victor Tangermann, Futurism, 9 Sep. 2026 Once Upon a Time in Harlem In 1972, documentarian William Greaves brought together the surviving luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance for a shindig at Duke Ellington’s house. — A.a. Dowd, Vulture, 8 Sep. 2026 Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jodie Foster, screenwriters Paul Schrader and Nicholas Pileggi, Spike Lee, and Daniel Day-Lewis (Miller’s husband) are among the luminaries who appear in the series. — Matthew Carey, Deadline, 5 Sep. 2026 Over the years, the convention center arena has hosted a who’s who of music luminaries, the kind of acts people tell their kids and grandkids about years after seeing them. — Matthew Adams, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 3 Sep. 2026 Then in 2024, at the Paris Olympic Games, her golden statue rises from the Seine, alongside other female luminaries Simon Veil and Simone de Beauvoir. — Annika Pham, Variety, 1 Sep. 2026 Arguments in favor of bond and tax measures will usually be well written and signed by several local luminaries. — Marc Joffe, Oc Register, 30 Aug. 2026 Since Parton’s death on Tuesday following a cancer diagnosis, celebrities, politicians, and luminaries have mourned her loss. — Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 27 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for luminaries
  1. stars
  2. celebrities
  3. galaxies
  4. personalities
  5. suns
  6. figures
  7. clusters
  8. dignitaries
Noun
  • How did Coco Gauff get the job done on a day of tussle for top stars?
    — Ava Wallace, New York Times, 6 Sep. 2026
  • Off the runway, street style stars have started adapting the color trend to their own personal style.
    — Elise Fabre, Glamour, 5 Sep. 2026
Definition of stars
Noun
  • Everything about this beating felt like a Hollywood Red Carpet event, with congressional leaders and celebrities lining the sidelines.
    — Trey Wallace OutKick, FOXNews.com, 6 Sep. 2026
  • The pregame sidelines were packed five-people deep with celebrities (Livvy Dunne), NFL alumni (Justin Jefferson), recruits, other dignitaries and media members.
    — Seth Emerson, New York Times, 6 Sep. 2026
Definition of celebrities
Noun
  • While the former describes the universe on scales of planets, stars and black holes, even demonstrating how galaxies and galaxy clusters formed, the latter describes the counterintuitive physics found on scales smaller than atoms.
    — Robert Lea, Space.com, 8 Sep. 2026
  • The film’s opening scene has her wading naked in Hampstead Ponds at night, looking up at the blinking stars and naming the constellations to herself, then closing her eyes as if to let the galaxies above wash over her.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of galaxies
Noun
  • One-time Titans quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick is among the pregame, halftime and postgame personalities.
    — Jenny Catlin, New York Times, 9 Sep. 2026
  • They long have been slickly produced promotional weeks for presidential candidates, and even showcases for network personalities and promotion.
    — Ted Johnson, Deadline, 9 Sep. 2026
Definition of personalities
Noun
  • Such streamers are thought to be how stars grow, delivering mass onto nascent suns.
    — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 17 Aug. 2026
  • The prevalence of LRDs in the early universe would align with the emergence of supermassive black holes, each weighing millions to billions of suns apiece, which astronomers spy at the hearts of large galaxies.
    — Lee Billings, Scientific American, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of suns
Noun
  • Webb figures he's got the best of both worlds, having his play-calling mentor by his side and squaring off against defensive coordinator Vance Joseph and Denver's stout defense all summer.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 8 Sep. 2026
  • The precise figures go unpublished, all wrapped up in one big commercial total in the accounts, but there is unlikely to be a bigger deal of its kind in the Premier League.
    — James Pearce, New York Times, 8 Sep. 2026
Definition of figures
Noun
  • Wire cables, arranged in clusters across a gallery floor, conjure tufts of grass.
    — Carolina A. Miranda, The New York Review of Books, 5 Sep. 2026
  • Cut the clusters in half on an angle and add to shallot mixture (don’t stir).
    — ABC News, ABC News, 3 Sep. 2026
Definition of clusters
Noun
  • The pregame sidelines were packed five-people deep with celebrities (Livvy Dunne), NFL alumni (Justin Jefferson), recruits, other dignitaries and media members.
    — Seth Emerson, New York Times, 6 Sep. 2026
  • We are used to the street closures, the factory shutdowns, the restrictions on driving and internet access during Communist Party conferences, international summits, Tiananmen Square military parades, and the visits of foreign dignitaries.
    — Jonathan Flint, Harpers Magazine, 1 Sep. 2026
Definition of dignitaries

Browse Nearby Words

luminance
luminaries
luminary
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Cite this Entry

“Luminaries.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/luminaries. Accessed 14 Sep. 2026.

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