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  • Pole Star
    Pole Star
    noun
    the star closest to the N celestial pole at any particular time. At present this is Polaris, but it will eventually be replaced by some other star owing to precession of the earth's axis
  • pole star
    pole star
    noun
    a guiding principle, rule, standard, etc

Pole Star

1 British  

noun

  1. the star closest to the N celestial pole at any particular time. At present this is Polaris, but it will eventually be replaced by some other star owing to precession of the earth's axis

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

pole star 2 British  

noun

  1. a guiding principle, rule, standard, etc

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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See Examples For:

Working through that backlog would take weeks even after the waterway is safe to pass, said Saleem Khan, chief data and analytics officer at maritime-intelligence firm Pole Star Global.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026

The name Polaris is taken from the Pole Star, used for navigation by slaves escaping northwards in the US in the 19th Century.

From BBC ● Feb. 12, 2019

This week the Finsler comet is almost opposite the Pole Star in its path across the northern sky toward the Big Dipper.

From Time Magazine Archive

Pole Star surged forward, seemingly planning to simply crush them under its weight.

From "Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi

They hit water and shot forward, arrowing for the sinking Pole Star.

From "Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi

His wife and daughter’s troubled relationship is the novel’s pole star: “Flashlight” is less about the absent Serk than the omnipresent, annoying Anne.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2025

She was, he said, so “unvarying in her pole star radiance that we have perhaps been lulled into thinking that she might be in some way eternal.”

From Washington Post ● Sep. 12, 2022

“Instead of leading us at the front of the pack, he will now lead us as our guiding pole star as we press forward in the realization of his dream.”

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 28, 2022

Combining lightning-quick, two-handed picking techniques with hammer-ons, pull-offs, complex harmonics and an array of innovative devices he patented, the guitarist became a pole star for generations of musicians.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2020

The pole star was hidden; still Geoffrey kept on walking as fast as he could, trying to keep a straight line.

From Greene Ferne Farm by Richard Jefferies

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