Also called Nova Salmon. a Pacific salmon cured in the style of Nova Scotia salmon.
nova, (loosely) any smoked salmon.
A white dwarf star that suddenly and temporarily becomes extremely bright as a result of the explosion at its surface of material accreted from an expanding companion star. The material, mostly hydrogen and helium, is attracted by the white dwarf's gravity and accumulates under growing pressure and heat until nuclear fusion is ignited. Unlike a supernova, a nova is not blown apart by the explosion and gradually returns to its original brightness over a period of weeks to years. Because of their sudden appearance where no star had been previously visible, novae were long thought to be new stars. Since 1925, novae have been classified as variable stars.
Compare supernova
What is a nova? A nova is a star that temporarily becomes extremely bright and then returns to its original brightness. The plural of nova is novas or novae. A star is an object in outer space that is basically a big bright ball of gas. The Sun is the only star in our solar system. The Sun is a medium-sized star in the middle of its life. When a star the size of our Sun or smaller nears the end of its life, it becomes a white dwarf. A white dwarf is small (for a star) and, because of its size, not very bright. However, a white dwarf is very dense, so it has a strong gravitational pull. In a binary solar system, there are two stars. Sometimes, a white dwarf star in a binary system will pull hydrogen gas from a bigger, neighboring star. Eventually, it may pull so much hydrogen together that it causes an explosion. This explosion causes the white dwarf to become incredibly bright and become what is called a nova. A nova is temporary. Typically, a white dwarf only stays really bright for several days before returning to its original state. The white dwarf may again start pulling hydrogen from its neighbor and eventually again turn into a nova. Each cycle could take anywhere from a thousand to hundreds of thousands of years.
First recorded in 1680–90; from New Latin: noun use of feminine of Latin novus “new”; see also new
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The project, released just before Coachella, blended a diverse range of rhythms such as pop, Brazilian funk, R&B and bossa nova -- a mix that, for Sonza, is the essence of Brazil.
From Barron's ● Apr. 13, 2026
Pair the bagels with hand sliced nova salmon, cream cheese, and a slice of tomato for a true feast.
From Salon ● Dec. 4, 2025
Although astronomers have not observed any nova events in this system in recent history, such outbursts often recur every few thousand years.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 9, 2025
“Oganesson” is constructed around his delicate strummed riff, which recalls the ease of bossa nova, and it has an airiness and jazziness not found elsewhere on the record.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2025
Such a binary is called a nova and has quite a different origin from a supernova.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
The mayor of Poltava also reported a death on Telegram, which came after he said a Nova Poshta postal terminal had been attacked.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
Using the Nova classification system, researchers categorized 81% of them as ultra-processed.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
Outgoing President Carlos Vila Nova will face party rival Nito Viegas D'Abreu, a current member of parliament backed by former prime minister Patrice Trovoada, along with two independent candidates.
From Barron's ● Jul. 19, 2026
Researchers in Brazil introduced the term in a 2009 paper as part of the Nova grading system, a classification framework to help determine the processing level of food.
From Slate ● Jul. 12, 2026
She and Nova were in different classes now and hung out with different people, but they still waved hello to each other in the hall.
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
Seeing exactly how the ejecta blast outward and interact is key to explaining how shock waves form in novae.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 31, 2025
"They are so dense that when they accrete material on their surface they can undergo runaway nuclear reactions, which we detect as novae."
From Science Daily ● Nov. 9, 2025
What if these novae were actually the remnants of technological civilizations like ours, which had in fact discovered the dreaded "detonator" referenced by Rutherford?
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2023
"I was looking for a much more common type of outburst called novae."
From Scientific American ● May 3, 2023
Proper naked-eye observations of novae and comets could produce results incompatible with celestial-sphere astronomy, but these results were irrelevant to planetary predictions.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Infrared data can yield signals of colder material, in contrast to bright visible light signals that often come from novas and other powerful events.
From Scientific American ● May 3, 2023
Strongly influenced by the subtle bossa novas sung by João Gilberto, Ms. Costa began performing in her teens.
From New York Times ● Nov. 9, 2022
There’s so much music in Berlin’s stories, from the “Cielito Lindo” guitar players of her youth to her own music: Buddy Holly, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, the bossa novas of Astrud Gilberto.
From New York Times ● Oct. 29, 2018
In the 1980s, Shara had predicted that novas, novalike systems and dwarf novas were the same stars in different stages of an eruption cycle.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 30, 2017
Arguments over the location of novas and comets in the heavens thus continued even after 1610, after which date the traditional Ptolemaic system was abandoned by all competent participants.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
