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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

“But Pole Star has almost half its crew staffed with augments.”

From "Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi

She explained that Pole Star was a trading vessel but also a warship, accustomed to fighting Siberian and Inuit pirates as it made the icy Pole Run to Nippon.

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

You can identify the pole star by looking directly north and locating a star that hangs distinctly by itself.

From BBC Jan. 31, 2023

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

At present I abide simply by the will of my king, who has so often been our guiding star in battle, as the pole star of heaven guides the mariner through opposing storms.

From Tales from the German. Volume I. Arwed Gyllenstierna by Velde, C. F. van der (Carl Franz)

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