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facula

[fak-yuh-luh]
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noun, plural fac·u·lae [fak-yuh-lee] /ˈfæk yəˌli/. Astronomy.
  1. an irregular, unusually bright patch on the sun's surface.
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Origin of facula

1700–10; < Latin: little torch, equivalent to fac- (stem of fax) torch + -ula -ule
Related formsfac·u·lar, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for facula

Historical Examples

  • Facula, fak′ū-la, n. a spot brighter than the rest of the surface, sometimes seen on the sun's disc:—pl.

    Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M)

    Various

  • He considers it indeed "highly probable that the preparatory sign of a new spot is always a small, bright patch of facula."

British Dictionary definitions for facula

facula

noun plural -lae (-ˌliː)
  1. any of the bright areas on the sun's surface, usually appearing just before a sunspot and subject to the same 11-year cycle
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Derived Formsfacular, adjective

Word Origin

C18: from Latin: little torch, from fax torch
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
facula in Science

facula

[făk′yə-lə]
Plural faculae (făk′yə-lē′)
  1. A bright, cloudlike structure on the Sun's surface, ascending several hundred kilometers above the photosphere and often associated with sunspots. Faculae are formed when a strong magnetic field heats a region of the photosphere to higher temperatures than the surrounding area. They occur all over the Sun but are usually only visible near the limb (the outer edge of the Sun's apparent disk), where the photosphere appears dimmer than in the center.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.