Monoceros

American  

[muh-nos-er-uhs] / məˈnɒs ər əs /

noun

Astronomy.

genitive

Monocerotis

1. the Unicorn, a constellation south of Gemini and east of Orion.

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Monoceros British  

/ məˈnɒsərəs /

noun

1. a faint constellation on the celestial equator crossed by the Milky Way and lying close to Orion and Canis Major

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Etymology

Origin of Monoceros

C14: via Old French from Latin: unicorn, from Greek monokeros with a single horn, from _mono- + keras horn

Example Sentences

It lies within the faint but imaginative constellation Monoceros, which represents a unicorn in star maps.

From Science Daily • Dec. 25, 2025

Not to worry, however: This black hole is 1,600 light-years away, in the constellation Ophiuchus; the next nearest known black hole is about 3,000 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros.

From New York Times • Nov. 5, 2022

The alpha Monocerotids have been dubbed unicorn meteors because they radiate from the constellation Monoceros, the Greek word for unicorn, according to EarthSky.

From Fox News • Nov. 21, 2019

The alpha Monocerotids — named after the constellation Monoceros or the Unicorn — most recently produced an outburst in 1995.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 20, 2019

The stars forming the western end of Monoceros are depicted on map No. 1.

From Pleasures of the telescope An Illustrated Guide for Amateur Astronomers and a Popular Description of the Chief Wonders of the Heavens for General Readers by Serviss, Garrett Putman