starry
Americanadjective
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filled, covered with, or illuminated by stars
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of, like, or relating to a star or stars
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of starry
Middle English word dating back to 1325–75; see origin at star, -y 1
Explanation
Starry things are either full of stars, like the starry night sky, or they look like stars, like the starry white flowers in your garden. An astronaut may have the chance to look out at the starry universe or distant, starry galaxies—and you can do this too, if you have a powerful telescope. The adjective starry almost always describes the night sky, unless a poet describes starry eyes or starry fields of flowers. If someone calls you starry-eyed, they mean that you're unrealistically optimistic.
Vocabulary lists containing starry
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
D’Angelo’s children introduced the medley, which was set against a backdrop of floor to ceiling windows looking out on a starry sky.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
As I ring the doorbell of Maggie O'Farrell's Edinburgh home, I wonder with some trepidation whether the acclaimed novelist might have become a bit starry after the whirlwind few months she's just had.
From BBC ● May 22, 2026
Just as closely watched has been the string of starry casting announcements — and one very high-profile departure, Helena Bonham Carter, who departed the show shortly after production began.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 27, 2026
Lady Gaga, Bieber, Carpenter and Bruno Mars are set to lead a starry list of performers that also includes Lauryn Hill and a tribute to late rocker Ozzy Osbourne featuring Post Malone.
From Barron's ● Feb. 1, 2026
The hangar doors slid open, and the Vonnegut rocketed out the launch tunnel and up into the starry sky.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
The unwritten rules: the bigger, the louder, the splashier, the starrier, the better.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 27, 2025
Mel Brooks, Angela Bassett and film editor Carol Littleton will collect honorary Oscar statuettes at a private, untelevised dinner Tuesday night in Los Angeles that has often been even starrier than the Oscars themselves.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 9, 2024
It’s a tricky line to walk, including starrier U.S. titles without seeming to be pandering.
From New York Times ● Feb. 24, 2023
The festival had been starrier then, he thought; he’d interviewed Jon Hamm and Annette Bening, and run into Blythe Danner on the street.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 29, 2023
Our wisdom dies Beneath your deeper, starrier skies!
From Collected Poems Volume Two by Noyes, Alfred
Stripped of their starriest player and many trusted associates, they’ve morphed into a tighter outfit that plays unselfish team basketball and relies on every player to shoot, rebound and defend.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 2, 2026
Brazilian director Karim Ainouz's surreal satire "Rosebush Pruning" premiered on Saturday at the Berlin Film Festival with one of the programme's starriest casts portraying an outrageously spoiled and dysfunctional family descending into chaos.
From Barron's ● Feb. 14, 2026
Like the Oscars this year, there was something warmer and lower key than usual about this starriest of after-parties.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 13, 2023
The soprano — who made her unforgettable Ojai debut 11 years ago while still a student of Dawn Upshaw, that year’s music director — was to have been the festival’s starriest attraction.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2022
From the dome Of starriest Night two blest Immortals come, To bear us spheral-ward to God's own mercy-seat.
From Hesperus and Other Poems and Lyrics by Sangster, Charles
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
