Sirius

American  

[sir-ee-uhs] / ˈsɪr i əs /

noun

1. Astronomy. the Dog Star, the brightest-appearing star in the heavens, located in the constellation Canis Major.

2. Classical Mythology. Also Sirius

   1. the dog of Orion.

   2. Icarius' faithful dog, who was changed into a star.

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Sirius British  

/ ˈsɪrɪəs /

noun

1. Also called: the Dog Star.   Canicula.   Sothis.  the brightest star in the sky after the sun, lying in the constellation Canis Major. It is a binary star whose companion, Sirius B , is a very faint white dwarf. Distance: 8.6 light years

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Sirius Scientific  

/ sĭr′ē-əs /

1. The brightest star seen in the night sky. It is in the constellation Canis Major. It is a white main-sequence star on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, with an apparent magnitude of −1.5. Sirius is a binary star, and its companion is a white dwarf star referred to as the Pup. Sirius is also known as the Dog Star. Scientific name: Alpha Canis.

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Etymology

Origin of Sirius

1325–75; Middle English < Latin Sīrius < Greek Seírios

Example Sentences

The Sirius patrol, tasked with defending a huge, largely uninhabited swathe of the island in the northeast measuring 972,000 square km, travels across the ice by dogsled.

From Barron's • Jan. 14, 2026

When Stern moved to Sirius from terrestrial radio in 2016, he commanded a huge audience estimated at 20 million listeners a day.

From MarketWatch • Dec. 16, 2025

It came loaded with a subscription to the Sirius radio service, featuring a channel devoted entirely to Bruce called E Street Radio.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 24, 2025

Ms Crickmore called her winning vegetable Sirius, "because that's the brightest star in the sky".

From BBC • Oct. 15, 2025

The school talked of nothing but Sirius Black for the next few days.

From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling