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  • Pole Star
    Pole Star
    noun
    the star closest to the N celestial pole at any particular time. At present this is Polaris, but it will eventually be replaced by some other star owing to precession of the earth's axis
  • pole star
    pole star
    noun
    a guiding principle, rule, standard, etc

Pole Star

1 British  

noun

  1. the star closest to the N celestial pole at any particular time. At present this is Polaris, but it will eventually be replaced by some other star owing to precession of the earth's axis

"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

pole star 2 British  

noun

  1. a guiding principle, rule, standard, etc

"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

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See Examples For:

Working through that backlog would take weeks even after the waterway is safe to pass, said Saleem Khan, chief data and analytics officer at maritime-intelligence firm Pole Star Global.

From The Wall Street Journal Mar. 17, 2026

The name Polaris is taken from the Pole Star, used for navigation by slaves escaping northwards in the US in the 19th Century.

From BBC Feb. 12, 2019

This week the Finsler comet is almost opposite the Pole Star in its path across the northern sky toward the Big Dipper.

From Time Magazine Archive

“But Pole Star has almost half its crew staffed with augments.”

From "Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi

Alternatively, at night, you could measure latitude directly by measuring the angle between the horizon and the Pole Star.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

His wife and daughter’s troubled relationship is the novel’s pole star: “Flashlight” is less about the absent Serk than the omnipresent, annoying Anne.

From Los Angeles Times Jun. 2, 2025

To find it, Massey suggests first searching for the pole star, which is always in the same place in the sky.

From BBC Jan. 31, 2023

She was, he said, so “unvarying in her pole star radiance that we have perhaps been lulled into thinking that she might be in some way eternal.”

From Washington Post Sep. 12, 2022

“Instead of leading us at the front of the pack, he will now lead us as our guiding pole star as we press forward in the realization of his dream.”

From Seattle Times Aug. 28, 2022

“It is the same star we found forming the lower corner of Pegasus’ square on the side toward the pole star.

From The Star People by Johnson, Gaylord

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