Orion

American  

[uh-rahy-uhn] / əˈraɪ ən /

noun

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

Glover, who now lives in Texas near NASA’s Johnson Space Center, is focused on bringing that SoCal sensibility and invaluable experience piloting the Orion capsule to the agency’s astronaut training program.

From Los Angeles Times • May 20, 2026

Navy divers assisted each crew member out of Orion and brought them aboard USS John P. Murtha.

From Science Daily • May 4, 2026

The mission demonstrated the Orion spacecraft’s life-support systems and its powerful Space Launch System rocket.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 29, 2026

A mission operator engineer at Goonhilly Earth Station in Cornwall, he spent the flight glued to live radio links from the Orion capsule, listening in on real‑time chatter between the spacecraft and Houston.

From BBC • Apr. 18, 2026

‘A few nights ago I dreamed about our mother. It.. . wasn’t pleasant. Then I got Nico’s message in my dreams - about Orion hunting you. That was even less pleasant.’

From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan