Orion

American  

[uh-rahy-uhn] / əˈraɪ ən /

noun

Orionis genitive

1. Classical Mythology. a giant hunter who pursued the Pleiades, was eventually slain by Artemis, and was then placed in the sky as a constellation.

2. Astronomy. the Hunter, a constellation lying on the celestial equator between Canis Major and Taurus, containing the bright stars Betelgeuse and Rigel.

3. Military. a land-based U.S. Navy patrol plane with four turboprop engines, used to detect, track, and destroy enemy submarines and armed with missiles, torpedoes, mines, and depth bombs.

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Orion ¹ British  

/ əˈraɪən /

noun

1. a conspicuous constellation near Canis Major containing two first magnitude stars (Betelgeuse and Rigel) and a distant bright emission nebula (the Orion Nebula ) associated with a system of giant molecular clouds and star formation

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Orion ² British  

/ əˈraɪən /

noun

1. Greek myth a Boeotian giant famed as a great hunter, who figures in several tales

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Orion Scientific  

/ ō-rī′ən /

1. A constellation in the equatorial region of the celestial sphere, near Taurus and Gemini. Orion (the Hunter) contains the bright stars Betelgeuse and Rigel.

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Example Sentences

“It turns a math problem into a loyalty test,” said Daniel Crosby, chief behavioral officer at Orion Advisor Solutions.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 23, 2026

Once Orion completes initial system checks, it will attempt rendezvous and docking operations for the first time with test versions of lunar landers being developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX.

From Science Daily • Jun. 11, 2026

The third phase of Artemis will involve testing the Orion spacecraft and conducting rendezvous and docking tests with lunar landers.

From Barron's • Jun. 10, 2026

The Artemis III crew will be aboard Orion for slightly longer than the nine days spent there by the Artemis II team.

From BBC • Jun. 9, 2026

All those recently hatched massive blue- white super-giant stars in Orion are destined in the next few million years to become supernovae, a continuing cosmic fireworks in the constellation of the hunter.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan