corona

¹ American  

[kuh-roh-nuh] / kəˈroʊ nə /

noun

plural

coronas, coronae

1. a white or colored circle or set of concentric circles of light seen around a luminous body, especially around the sun or moon.

2. Meteorology. such a circle or set of circles having a small radius and ranging in color from blue inside to red outside, attributable to the diffraction caused by thin clouds, mist, or sometimes dust (halo ).

3. Also called aureola.  Also called aureole.  Astronomy. a faintly luminous envelope outside of the sun's chromosphere, the inner part consisting of highly ionized elements.

4. a long, straight, untapered cigar, rounded at the closed end.

5. Botany. a crownlike appendage, especially one on the inner side of a corolla, as in the narcissus.

6. Anatomy. the upper portion or crown of a part, as of the head.

7. any part or structure suggestive of a crown or curved crown shape.

8. Pathology. a coronavirus, especially COVID-19.

9. Electricity. corona discharge.

10. Architecture. the projecting, slablike member of a classical cornice supported by the bed molding or by modillions, dentils, etc., and supporting the cymatium.

11. the tonsure of a cleric.

12. Ecclesiastical. a gold-colored stripe around the lower edge of a clerical headdress, as of a miter.

13. a chandelier of wrought metal, having the form of one or more concentric hoops.

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Corona ² American  

[kuh-roh-nuh] / kəˈroʊ nə /

noun

1. a city in southeastern California.

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corona British  

/ kəˈrəʊnə /

noun

1. a circle of light around a luminous body, usually the moon

2. Also called: aureole.  the outermost region of the sun's atmosphere, visible as a faint halo during a solar eclipse

3. architect the flat vertical face of a cornice just above the soffit

4. something resembling a corona or halo

5. a circular chandelier suspended from the roof of a church

6. botany

   1. the trumpet-shaped part of the corolla of daffodils and similar plants; the crown

   2. a crown of leafy outgrowths from inside the petals of some flowers

7. anatomy a crownlike structure, such as the top of the head

8. zoology the head or upper surface of an animal, such as the body of an echinoid or the disc and arms of a crinoid

9. a long cigar with blunt ends

10. physics short for corona discharge

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corona Scientific  

/ kə-rō′nə /

plural

coronas

1. The luminous, irregular envelope of gas outside the chromosphere of a star. The Sun's corona is composed of ionized gas between approximately 1,000,000°K and 2,000,000°K and has an extremely low density. This phenomenon is visible only during a solar eclipse.

2. A faintly colored luminous ring appearing to surround a celestial body (such as the Moon or Sun) that is visible through a haze or thin cloud, caused by diffraction of light from suspended matter in the intervening medium.

3. Also called aureole

4. A faint glow of the air in the region of very strong electric fields, caused by ionization of the air molecules and flow of current in that region in corona discharge.

5. The crownlike upper portion of a bodily part or structure, such as the top of the head.

6. A crown-shaped structure on the inner side of the petals of some flowers, such as the daffodil.

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Usage

Where does corona come from? Flowers and crows, priests and soldiers, suns and moons, kings and queens, lagers and viruses? What could all these disparate things possibly have in common? Well, in one way or another, they are involved in the rich history of the word corona. Corona entered English around 1555–65. It was borrowed directly from the Latin corōna, meaning “garland, wreath, crown.” Its plural form is corōnae. A verb form of corōna was corōnāre, “to crown, wreathe,” ultimate source of the English coronation, “the act or ceremony of crowning a king, queen, or other sovereign.”Let’s start with a glimpse into life in ancient Rome. Back then, a corōna served various ceremonial and symbolic functions. People wore corōnae of flowers at festivals, for example, or used them to ornament images of gods. Priests donned corōnae when performing important rituals and sacrifices. Different types of corōna were used as military decorations honoring various acts of bravery. For instance, the corōna mūrālis, or “walled crown,” was a gold crown fashioned in the shape of battlements and was awarded to a soldier who was the first to enter a besieged town or fortress. One especially high honor was the corōna cīvica (“civic crown”), bestowed on a citizen who saved a fellow citizen’s life. It was also known as corōna querca, or “oak crown,” because it was made with oak leaves. This crown became a symbol for emperors and appeared on coins. Outside of literal crowns worn on the head, the Latin corōna could be used for various things that resemble crowns in their form, including cornices and the halo around the sun. These applications of corōna informed the earliest uses of the word in English. The oldest recorded sense of corona in English refers to the projecting, slab-like part of a classical cornice. Next up in English’s record, evidenced around the mid-1600s, is corona meaning “a ring of light, as around the sun or moon”—like a figurative crown atop the head of a celestial body. Today, astronomers specifically use corona for the outermost part of the sun’s atmosphere, which is visible during a total solar eclipse. Dig deeperAs we’ve seen, corona comes from the Latin word for “crown.” So does the very word crown!Much older than corona, crown is found in English around 1125–1175. Crown developed from the Middle English coroune, among other forms, which came from the Anglo-French coroune, in turn from the Latin corona. Now, the Latin corōna has its own fascinating past. It was borrowed from the ancient Greek korṓnē, a word used for a kind of crow or seabird, as well as for anything curved or hooked, presumably due to the shape of the beak of such birds.

Etymology

Origin of corona

First recorded in 1555–65; from Latin corōna “garland, crown” ( crown ), from Greek korṓnē “crown, curved object”; akin to korōnís “curved, beaked,” kórax “crow, raven” ( crow ¹ )

Explanation

A corona is a glowing circle of light around an object. You can see the Sun's corona during a total solar eclipse. The word corona refers in a general sense to a circle or ring of light. In scientific terms, a corona is the very outer part of the Sun's gaseous atmosphere. If you want to see the corona of the Sun, you'll have to use a special viewing device during the next solar eclipse (don't look directly at the Sun — it's not safe!). In the 17th century, corona referred to a circular crown, from the Latin word for "crown or garland."

Example Sentences

The astronauts will then have the chance to study the solar corona, the outermost layer of the Sun's atmosphere, which will become visible as a sort of glowing halo.

From Barron's • Apr. 5, 2026

Coronal Mass Ejections are huge bursts of charged plasma travelling at millions of miles an hour that explode out of the Sun's outer atmosphere or corona.

From BBC • Nov. 11, 2025

The corona, visible during total solar eclipses, can exceed one million degrees Celsius -- hot enough to propel charged particles outward as the solar wind that fills our solar system.

From Science Daily • Oct. 27, 2025

Using Cryo-NIRSP, his team followed the movement of iron in the corona, heated to an extraordinary 1.6 million degrees Celsius.

From Science Daily • Oct. 27, 2025

La Corona: “La corona más grande y preciosa le pertenece a una reina humilde.”

From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall