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• Aurora
  Aurora

  noun

  the ancient Roman goddess of the dawn.
• aurora
  aurora

  noun

  an atmospheric phenomenon consisting of bands, curtains, or streamers of light, usually green, red, or yellow, that move across the sky in polar regions. It is caused by collisions between air molecules and charged particles from the sun that are trapped in the earth's magnetic field

Aurora

American  

[uh-rawr-uh, uh-rohr-uh] / əˈrɔr ə, əˈroʊr ə /

noun

auroras, plural aurorae plural

1. the ancient Roman goddess of the dawn.

2. (lowercase) dawn.

3. (lowercase) a radiant emission from the upper atmosphere that occurs sporadically over the middle and high latitudes of both hemispheres in the form of luminous bands, streamers, or the like, caused by the bombardment of the atmosphere with charged solar particles that are being guided along the earth's magnetic lines of force.

4. a city in central Colorado, near Denver.

5. a city in northeastern Illinois.

6. a first name.

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Aurora ¹ British  

/ ɔːˈrɔːrə /

noun

1. another name for Maewo

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Aurora ² British  

/ ɔːˈrɔːrə /

noun

1. Greek counterpart: Eos.  the Roman goddess of the dawn

2. the dawn or rise of something

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aurora ³ British  

/ ɔːˈrɔːrə /

noun

1. an atmospheric phenomenon consisting of bands, curtains, or streamers of light, usually green, red, or yellow, that move across the sky in polar regions. It is caused by collisions between air molecules and charged particles from the sun that are trapped in the earth's magnetic field

2. poetic the dawn

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aurora Scientific  

/ ə-rôr′ə /

auroras plural

1. A brilliant display of bands or folds of variously colored light in the sky at night, especially in polar regions. Charged particles from the solar wind are channeled through the Earth's magnetic field into the polar regions. There the particles collide with atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere, ionizing them and making them glow. Auroras are of greatest intensity and extent during periods of increased sunspot activity, when they often interfere with telecommunications on Earth.

2. ◆ An aurora that occurs in southern latitudes is called an aurora australis (ô-strā|||PRIMARY_STRESS|||lĭs) or southern lights. When it occurs in northern latitudes it is called an aurora borealis (bôr′ē-ăl|||PRIMARY_STRESS|||ĭs) or northern lights.

3. See also magnetic storm

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Usage

What is an aurora? An aurora is a natural light display in the sky that is caused by particles from the sun interacting with a planet’s magnetic field. The most well-known aurora is the aurora borealis, the shimmering display of colorful lights that sometimes appears in Earth’s Northern Hemisphere. The phenomenon is also commonly called the northern lights. The aurora that occurs in the Southern Hemisphere is called aurora australis or the southern lights. (The word borealis is Latin for boreal, which simply means “northern.” The word australis is Latin for austral, which simply means “southern.”)On Earth, auroras appear in many colors ranging from green and pink to red, yellow, and blue. Both the northern and southern versions can be called aurora polaris because they occur around Earth’s poles, but this term is not commonly used. Auroras are not exclusive to Earth and occur on every planet in our solar system except Mercury.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• auroral
  adjective
• aurorally
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• aurorae
  plural
• auroras
  plural

Etymology

Origin of Aurora

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin aurōra “dawn, dawn goddess,” east

Explanation

An aurora consists of bands of light in the sky along the north and south poles. An aurora is a beautiful astronomical light show. If you look up at night and see bright bands of light, it's not an invasion by aliens: it's a natural, electrical phenomenon called an aurora. An aurora can happen at either of the Earth's magnetic poles, north or south. An aurora is considered one of the most gorgeous natural occurrences, and you’re lucky if you see one. The two types of auroras are called aurora borealis and aurora australis — which mean northern lights and southern lights, respectively.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Aurora aurora aurorae auroras

The couple also own a home about 20 miles outside of Buffalo, in East Aurora, N.Y.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026

The plane was a two-seat, single-engine Aurora SA60L manufactured by Chinese company Sunward Aircraft, according to flight tracking service Flightradar24.

From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026

Humble Robotics faces competition from other autonomous trucking companies including Pittsburgh-based Aurora and Bay Area-based Kodiak.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 21, 2026

Nuclear start-up Oklo cleared a key Energy Department regulatory hurdle for its Aurora powerhouse at Idaho National Laboratory.

From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026

“Petunia,” Aurora is saying to her sea turtle, “we’re gonna get to go live with a kitty!”

From "The Benefits of Being an Octopus" by Ann Braden

A portion of those particles are channeled to Earth’s magnetic poles, and when the solar wind is particularly active, they become visible as the aurora borealis and aurora australis.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

Those currents help power the aurora itself, which continues heating the atmosphere and sustaining the entire cycle.

From Science Daily ● May 29, 2026

Instead, electrical signals linked to the planet's aurora were being affected by winds in Saturn's upper atmosphere.

From Science Daily ● May 29, 2026

A red aurora is rarer and harder to catch than green, but spectacular when it appears.

From BBC ● Mar. 24, 2026

It was his aurora: it was telling him that he was still part of the great order of things, and that that could never change.

From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman

The CMEs energized Earth’s magnetic fields enough to generate aurorae at latitudes as low as the Florida Keys—and took scientists’ breath away with their combined intensity.

From Science Magazine ● May 15, 2024

On Earth, aurorae are created when energetic particles blown into space from the Sun are captured by Earth's magnetic field.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 9, 2024

But “the aurorae are always there when you observe an eclipse,” said Katherine R. de Kleer, a planetary astronomer at the California Institute of Technology and one of the authors of both studies.

From New York Times ● Feb. 16, 2023

The main spacecraft would spend years flying around the planet, gathering observations on features such as the magnetic field that probably powers Uranus’s glowing aurorae.

From Scientific American ● Apr. 19, 2022

Cornulier and Verdier are convinced, after carefully studying the subject, that there are almost always aurorae boreales in the high polar latitudes, and that their brilliancy alone is variable.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 26, December, 1859 by Various

By studying the angles of the auroras in those images and mapping them along Earth's magnetic field lines, the researchers were able to estimate how high the glowing structures reached into the atmosphere.

From Science Daily ● May 22, 2026

During the worst geomagnetic storm on record, in 1859, bright auroras were seen as far south as Panama -- and telegraph operators around the world were given electric shocks.

From Barron's ● May 19, 2026

Particularly fierce solar storms can knock out satellites and threaten astronauts -- and create dazzling auroras in the skies known as the northern or southern lights.

From Barron's ● May 19, 2026

To truly understand how auroras work, scientists need to see how this returning current closes the circuit.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 17, 2026

These would produce fabulous auroras, shimmering curtains of spooky light that would fill the whole sky.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson