Vulcan

American  

[vuhl-kuhn] / ˈvʌl kən /

noun

1. the ancient Roman god of fire and metalworking, identified with the Greek Hephaestus.

2. Military. a six-barrel, 20 mm U.S. Army antiaircraft gun system mounted on an armored personnel carrier and first deployed in 1968.

3. Astronomy. a hypothetical planet nearest the sun whose existence was erroneously postulated to account for perturbations in Mercury's orbit.

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Vulcan ¹ British  

/ ˈvʌlkən, vʌlˈkeɪnɪən /

noun

1. a hypothetical planet once thought to lie within the orbit of Mercury

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Vulcan ² British  

/ vʌlˈkeɪnɪən, ˈvʌlkən /

noun

1. Greek counterpart: Hephaestus.  the Roman god of fire and metalworking

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Vulcan Cultural  

1. The Roman and Greek god of fire and metalworking; the blacksmith of the gods. He suffered bodily deformities and lameness. According to some stories, he was married to Venus, the goddess of love and beauty; in other stories, he was married to one of the three Graces. Vulcan was a son of Jupiter.

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Other Word Forms

• Vulcanian
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of Vulcan

First recorded in 1505–15, Vulcan is from the Latin word Vulcānus

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Vulcan

Whittle's work went on to see the technology he pioneered put Britain at the forefront of post-war aircraft design, leading to aircraft like the twin tail-boom De Havilland Vampire and the Avro Vulcan.

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026

The Vulcan is best known for flying more than 6,000 miles from RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire to bomb Port Stanley during the Falklands War in 1982.

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026

Beyond its rare-earth magnet partnership with Vulcan, ReElement is also proving it can produce other critical minerals, including germanium.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026

His Vulcan and Hestia projects, supported by multiple federal agencies, quantify and visualize greenhouse gas emissions nationwide, from individual power plants and roadways to neighborhoods.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 18, 2026

I wanted to ask him if the ruins reminded him of Vulcan, the way they reminded me.

From "Darius the Great Is Not Okay" by Adib Khorram