First recorded in 1675–85
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Within this space nebulæ are clustered more closely than over any corresponding space in the heavens, save only the greater Magellanic cloud.
From Half-hours with the Telescope Being a Popular Guide to the Use of the Telescope as a Means of Amusement and Instruction. by Proctor, Richard A. (Richard Anthony)
By tracing its path backward over billions of years, they determined that the star originated in the Large Magellanic Cloud before eventually being pulled into the Milky Way.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 4, 2026
In a separate study published in 2025, the same team found that the impact left a visible mark on the Large Magellanic Cloud.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 20, 2026
Yet recent images captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope seem to contradict that notion by showing protoplanetary disks in a dwarf galaxy adjacent to our own Milky Way, the Small Magellanic Cloud.
From Salon ● Dec. 21, 2024
The Large Magellanic Cloud is a bright swath of stars visible to the naked eye in the Southern Hemisphere.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 20, 2024
The largest patch is near the Southern Cross, and called the Black Magellanic Cloud.
From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir
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.
