polestars

noun

plural of polestar
as in directions
a guiding or motivating purpose or principle under the polestar of progress, urban renewal programs gutted the historic districts of many cities

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for polestars
  1. directions
  2. compasses
  3. purposes
  4. foci
  5. lodestars
Noun
  • The city says plans include adding an additional lane of traffic in both the west and eastbound directions of Roseville Parkway.
    — James Taylor, CBS News, 14 July 2026
  • This creates an immediate sensing-to-action response, while each chamber operates independently to distinguish forces along horizontal, lateral, and vertical directions.
    — Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 13 July 2026
Definition of directions
Noun
  • So many role-playing games spoonfeed you with compasses and waypoints and fourth-wall-breaking warnings.
    — Alex James Kane, Forbes.com, 22 May 2026
  • As for steering a buggy to the Artemis base, compasses don’t work on the moon, and dust will adhere to optics, so NASA has pioneered plans to use Earth’s Galileo and GPS satellites to navigate.
    — Dan Vergano, Scientific American, 11 May 2026
Definition of compasses
Noun
  • Also, as open-source models, developers can download the models for free and tweak them to suit their own purposes.
    — Nicholas Gordon, Fortune, 17 July 2026
  • The cy pres doctrine prevents it from redirecting funds to other institutions, such as nearby public schools, or related purposes, such as college scholarships for low-income students.
    — Thomas Adam, The Conversation, 16 July 2026
Definition of purposes
Noun
  • Among the focuses will be communication, data, inflation, technology and the Fed's balance sheet.
    — Jeff Cox, CNBC, 26 June 2026
  • Beyond family and football, Kane’s two main focuses, golf is the only other hobby that really moves him.
    — Jack Pitt-Brooke, New York Times, 23 June 2026
Definition of foci
Noun
  • Over succeeding decades, both Sellars and Salonen have been Salzburg Festival lodestars.
    — Classical Music Critic, Los Angeles Times, 20 Mar. 2026
  • But in swapping out just four tracks, FKA twigs finally brought planet EUSEXUA into the orbit of her late-’90s pop lodestars.
    — Pitchfork, Pitchfork, 4 Dec. 2025
Definition of lodestars
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.

Browse Nearby Words

polestar
polestars
police
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Polestars.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/polestars. Accessed 19 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

The Longest Long Words List

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

The Words of the Week - Jul 17
See More

Popular

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
child-detective
Spot the Misspelled Word July 2026 Those little red underlines can't help you now...
See All