Cepheid
Americannoun
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Any of a class of variable stars whose luminosity fluctuates with an extremely regular period. There is a strong correlation between the absolute magnitude of a Cepheid's luminosity and its period. By comparing the apparent magnitude of a Cepheid to the absolute magnitude corresponding to its period, it is possible to determine fairly accurately how distant the Cepheid is from Earth.
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Also called Cepheid variable
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Upon closing, Masimo is expected to operate as a standalone company within Danaher’s Diagnostics segment, alongside its other businesses Radiometer, Leica Biosystems, Cepheid and Beckman Coulter Diagnostics.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 21, 2026
The Washington, D.C.–based conglomerate makes medical and scientific tools, spanning research to diagnostics, including Covid tests by its Cepheid division—one of the first-approved and widely used versions.
From Barron's • Jan. 8, 2026
These ladders are built from objects such as supernovae and special stars called Cepheid variable stars.
From Science Daily • Dec. 9, 2025
He calculated M31’s distance as a prodigious 900,000 light years away, though he underestimated its true distance – about 2.5 million light years – by not realizing there were two different types of Cepheid variables.
From Salon • Feb. 14, 2025
A special type of star, called a Cepheid variable, had a property that allowed Hubble to measure the distance to faraway objects.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
