Venus
Americannoun
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Venuses
plural
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an ancient Italian goddess of gardens and spring, identified by the Romans with Aphrodite as the goddess of love and beauty.
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an exceptionally beautiful woman.
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(sometimes lowercase) a statuette of a female figure, usually carved of ivory and typically having exaggerated breasts, belly, or buttocks, often found in Upper Paleolithic cultures from Siberia to France.
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Astronomy. the planet second in order from the sun, having an equatorial diameter of 7,521 miles (12,104 km), a mean distance from the sun of 67.2 million miles (108.2 million km), a period of revolution of 224.68 days, and no moons. It is the most brilliant planet in the solar system.
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Chemistry Obsolete. copper.
noun
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Greek counterpart: Aphrodite. the Roman goddess of love
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See mons veneris
noun
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one of the inferior planets and the second nearest to the sun, visible as a bright morning or evening star. Its surface is extremely hot (over 400°C) and is completely shrouded by dense cloud. The atmosphere is principally carbon dioxide. Mean distance from sun: 108 million km; period of revolution around sun: 225 days; period of axial rotation: 244.3 days (retrograde motion); diameter and mass: 96.5 and 81.5 per cent that of earth respectively
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the alchemical name for copper 1
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The second planet from the Sun, with a diameter about 400 miles less than that of Earth. Venus is a terrestrial or inner planet and at inferior conjunction comes nearer to Earth than any other planet; depending on its phase, it is also the brightest object in the night sky aside from Earth's moon. Because Venus is an inferior planet (located between Earth and the Sun), it is only visible relatively near the horizon in the first few hours before sunrise or after sunset. It has a dense atmosphere consisting primarily of carbon dioxide, which, together with its proximity to the Sun, creates an intense greenhouse effect, making it the hottest planet in the solar system with an average surface temperature of 464°C (867°F). Venus is completely shrouded by a thick layer of clouds made up mainly of droplets of sulfuric acid with other clouds of vaporous and particulate sulfur dioxide below it. Radar mapping of the Venutian surface shows rolling hills, plains, and numerous volcanoes as well as large impact craters and extensive lava flows.
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See Table at solar system
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The second planet from the sun (the Earth is third) is named Venus.
Venus is seen from the Earth as a bright morning or evening star — occasionally bright enough to cast a shadow.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of Venus
< Latin Venus, stem Vener- originally a neuter common noun meaning “physical desire, sexual appetite,” hence “qualities exciting desire, seductiveness, charm,” “a goddess personifying sexual attractiveness”; cognate with Sanskrit vanaḥ desire, akin to wish; cf. venerate, venom
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:
We see this happen on Venus -- there's almost no difference in surface temperature between the day and night sides, or between the poles and the equator.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 7, 2026
“So much of the history of art is the anonymity of women, whether she’s a Madonna, Venus or a nude bather,” says art historian Katy Hessel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
Eventual champion Alexander Zverev finished past 1am in three of his first five matches, while Venus Williams finished her first-round match at 2am.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
As tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams prepare to take the court at the U.S.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026
He describes the phases as providing ‘strong evidence that Venus moves in a sun-centred orbit’ when one might rather say that they provide conclusive evidence.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Pruitt sees “a fertile space of reflection” between his two Venuses.
From New York Times ● Nov. 1, 2022
The chaos of three time zones and daylight saving couldn’t stop us from deconstructing the lens of art history, which, McCormack argues, wants to confine women to four categories: Venuses, mothers, damsels or monsters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 18, 2021
For now, studying Venus up close may be the only route to reliable estimates of which is more common in the cosmos: Earths or Venuses.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 2, 2021
Like his sad-eyed Venuses who float just beyond reality, this young man has his mind on the infinite.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 25, 2020
Ah, my dear Madam, kings and queens may be backed like a whale or humped like a camel, but down goes the world on its marrow-bones, and worships them for Venuses and Adonises.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 100, February, 1866 by Various
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.
