NGC

American

Astronomy.

New General Catalogue: a catalog of clusters, nebulae, and galaxies compiled by Danish astronomer Johan Ludwig Dreyer (1852–1926) and published in 1888.

NGC British

abbreviation

New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars; a catalogue in which over 8000 nebulae, galaxies, and clusters are listed numerically

"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

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.

"This study shows that the astronomical processes we model on computers are shaping galaxies like NGC 1365 over billions of years."

From Science Daily • Mar. 23, 2026

M31-2014-DS1 initially stood out as an "oddball," De says, but it now seems to be one of several examples, including NGC 6946-BH1.

From Science Daily • Feb. 14, 2026

NGC 2264 is a large and active region of space where new stars are forming, located about 2,700 light years from Earth.

From Science Daily • Dec. 25, 2025

The supernova is located in the galaxy NGC 3621, in the direction of the constellation Hydra, approximately 22 million light-years away.

From Science Daily • Nov. 16, 2025

Black holes ranging from millions to billions of times more massive than the Sun are suspected in the cores of giant elliptical galaxies such as NGC 6251 and M87.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023