globular
Americanadjective
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globe-shaped; spherical.
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composed of or having globules.
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worldwide; global.
adjective
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shaped like a globe or globule
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having or consisting of globules
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of globular
Explanation
Something that's globular is round or spherical, like the big, globular heads your little brother adds when he's molding little people out of clay. Globular, "globe-shaped," comes from the Latin globus, "round mass or sphere." This adjective shows up a lot in scientific writing, including to describe a rounded mass of stars bound together by gravity — a globular cluster, or in astronomy shorthand, a globular. Strictly speaking, anything that's round is globular, from a tennis ball to the moon.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A globular cluster stellar stream is a long, narrow trail of stars that originated in a globular cluster, a dense collection of stars held together by gravity.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026
More than 240 of these stars have been identified in M3, more than in any other known globular cluster in our galaxy.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026
Astronomers have identified around 150 globular clusters orbiting the outskirts of our galaxy.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026
Most of the stars in a globular cluster are born from the same collapsing cloud of gas, so they tend to be roughly the same age.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026
Just before World War I, Harlow Shapley of Missouri devised a technique for measuring the distances to the globular clusters, those lovely spherical arrays of stars which resemble a swarm of bees.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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