globular
Americanadjective
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globe-shaped; spherical.
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composed of or having globules.
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worldwide; global.
adjective
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shaped like a globe or globule
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having or consisting of globules
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of globular
Explanation
Something that's globular is round or spherical, like the big, globular heads your little brother adds when he's molding little people out of clay. Globular, "globe-shaped," comes from the Latin globus, "round mass or sphere." This adjective shows up a lot in scientific writing, including to describe a rounded mass of stars bound together by gravity — a globular cluster, or in astronomy shorthand, a globular. Strictly speaking, anything that's round is globular, from a tennis ball to the moon.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Astronomers have identified around 150 globular clusters orbiting the outskirts of our galaxy.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026
The cluster contains two distinct populations of stars, raising the possibility that it formed when two globular clusters merged into one.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026
This image is part of a Hubble Treasury program that is surveying approximately half of the Milky Way's known globular clusters.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026
"He had a lot of edema, his face was very swollen, there was edema on his limbs, and a globular abdomen, like a balloon."
From Barron's ● Apr. 23, 2026
It seemed to him very likely that the globular clusters used in this investigation, nearly a hundred of them, would be orbiting about, paying homage to, the massive center of the Milky Way.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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.
