Olbers' paradox

[ ohl-berz ]

/ ˈoʊl bərz /

Save This Word!

noun Astronomy.

the paradox that if the universe consisted of an infinite number of stars equally distributed through space, then every line of sight would come from a star and the night sky would glow uniformly, which is observationally not true.

QUIZ

ARE YOU A TRUE BLUE CHAMPION OF THESE "BLUE" SYNONYMS?

We could talk until we're blue in the face about this quiz on words for the color "blue," but we think you should take the quiz and find out if you're a whiz at these colorful terms.

Question 1 of 8

Which of the following words describes “sky blue”?

navy

beryl

azure

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Meet Grammar Coach

Write or paste your essay, email, or story into Grammar Coach and get grammar help

Improve Your Writing

Meet Grammar CoachImprove Your Writing

Origin of Olbers' paradox

First recorded in 1950–55; after H.W.M. Olbers

Words nearby Olbers' paradox

Öland, olanzapine, Olathe, Olav V, Olbers, Olbers' paradox, Olcott, old, old Adam, old age, old age pension

How to use Olbers' paradox in a sentence

But I feel like films are uniquely suited towards addressing paradox, recursiveness, and worlds-within-worlds.
Christopher Nolan Uncut: On ‘Interstellar,’ Ben Affleck’s Batman, and the Future of Mankind|Marlow Stern|November 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST
To appreciate the Palmer paradox, it's important to understand that Palmer's childhood and young adulthood were dichotomous.
Will the Real Jim Palmer Please Stand Up|Tom Boswell|September 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
“Maybe we need a new category other than theism, atheism or agnosticism that takes paradox and unknowing into account,” he writes.
Frank Schaeffer, the Atheist Who Believes in God|Nick Tabor|August 3, 2014|DAILY BEAST
But Washington was a prisoner to its paradox of an Iraq policy.
Why the White House Ignored All Those Warnings About ISIS|Eli Lake|July 6, 2014|DAILY BEAST

As a result of this paradox, the Iraq policy process ground to a halt at the very moment that ISIS was on the rise.
Why the White House Ignored All Those Warnings About ISIS|Eli Lake|July 6, 2014|DAILY BEAST
It offers, to those who see it aright, the most perplexing industrial paradox ever presented in the history of mankind.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice|Stephen Leacock
But in reality this paradox of value is the most fundamental proposition in economic science.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice|Stephen Leacock
It was the spiritual way, whose method and secret lie in that subtle paradox: Yield to conquer.
The Wave|Algernon Blackwood
But it was a strange paradox, that precisely the depth of his love for her made him willing to think of losing her.
Love's Pilgrimage|Upton Sinclair
But this very paradox leads to the real principle of generalization concerning the properties of numbers.
A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive|John Stuart Mill