fixed star

nounAstronomy.

any of the stars which apparently always retain the same position in respect to one another.

Origin of fixed star

First recorded in 1555–65

Words Nearby fixed star

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use fixed star in a sentence

I assumed the nearest fixed star to be the first station in Paradise and the first soul to have started thirty thousand years ago.
Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete | Albert Bigelow Paine
The Captain sat at the head of the table; next him was the fixed star Dūspeptos, with Satellite stationary on the right quarter.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 85, November, 1864 | Various
I know where flames the fixed star of certainty and success.
Orthodoxy | G. K. Chesterton
But they may see our sun as we do theirs, in appearance a fixed star?
Conversations on Natural Philosophy, in which the Elements of that Science are Familiarly Explained | Jane Haldimand Marcet and Thomas P. Jones
There is a fixed star situated near that spot, which is hence called the north polar star.
Conversations on Natural Philosophy, in which the Elements of that Science are Familiarly Explained | Jane Haldimand Marcet and Thomas P. Jones

British Dictionary definitions for fixed star

fixed star

noun

any of the stars in the Ptolemaic system, all of which were thought to be attached to an outer crystal sphere thus explaining their apparent lack of movement
an extremely distant star whose position appears to be almost stationary over a long period of time

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

Scientific definitions for fixed star

fixed star

[ fĭkst ]

A star or other celestial object so distant from Earth that its position in relation to other stars appears not to change over time. The fixed stars, which include virtually all visible objects beyond the solar system, form the background against which the motions of the Sun, planets, and other bodies of the solar system are measured, and they provide the reference for determining sidereal time. In actuality, no celestial object has a fixed position in relation to any other, and the movement of so-called fixed stars can be measured by precise observation over long periods of time. See more at proper motion.

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