vela

¹

[ vee-luh ]

noun

1. plural of velum.

Vela

²

[ vee-luh, vey- ]

noun

, Astronomy.

, genitive Ve·lo·rum [vee-, lawr, -, uh, m, -, lohr, -, vey-]

1. the Sail, a southern constellation: one of the subordinate constellations into which Argo is divided.
2. U.S. Aerospace. one of a series of reconnaissance satellites designed to detect nuclear explosions.

Vela

/ ˈviːlə /

noun

1. a constellation in the S hemisphere, close to Puppis and Carina and crossed by the Milky Way, that has four second-magnitude stars and a young bright pulsar

Word History and Origins

Origin of vela¹

< Latin, plural of vēlum sail

Example Sentences

The winner of Tuesday’s special election will finish Vela’s truncated term, which ends in January.

From FiveThirtyEight

An alarmed Vela, who has held office for 24 years, has been forced to look inward.

From Washington Post

The Vela 3 and 4 satellites observed brief flashes of high-energy photons, or gamma rays, that appeared to be coming from space.

From Quanta Magazine

Either way, it’s considerably larger than the Vela supernova remnant, which is about 100 light-years wide.

From Science News

Vela is not an employee of the hospital, but he was told vaccine doses were available if he wanted one.

From ProPublica

Smith is running against incumbent Democrat Filemon Vela, who destroyed his opponent in 2012 with 62 percent of the vote.

From The Daily Beast

The roof of the fourth ventricle widens out very much and remains largely epithelial as the superior and inferior medullary vela.

From Project Gutenberg

The Redonda and Alta Vela phosphates consist chiefly of phosphate of alumina.

From Project Gutenberg

De la Torre, therefore, requested the father guardian to converse on the subject with Vela Nunnez.

From Project Gutenberg

At first Vela Nunnez was on his guard, lest it might be a false confidence devised for his ruin.

From Project Gutenberg

Leaving these friendly Indians, Ojeda pursued his way along the coast to the westward, until he reached cape de la Vela.

From Project Gutenberg