sidereal

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: si=de=re=al

CIDE DICTIONARY

sidereal, a. [L. sidereus, from sidus, sideris, a constellation, a star. Cf. Sideral, Consider, Desire.].

•  Relating to the stars; starry; astral; as, sidereal astronomy.  [1913 Webster]
•  Measuring by the apparent motion of the stars; designated, marked out, or accompanied, by a return to the same position in respect to the stars; as, the sidereal revolution of a planet; a sidereal day.  [1913 Webster]

Sidereal clock, day, month, year. See under Clock, Day, etc. -- Sideral time, time as reckoned by sideral days, or, taking the sidereal day as the unit, the time elapsed since a transit of the vernal equinox, reckoned in parts of a sidereal day. This is, strictly, apparent sidereal time, mean sidereal time being reckoned from the transit, not of the true, but of the mean, equinoctial point.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

sidereal, adj. of or concerning the constellations or fixed stars.

Idiom

sidereal clock a clock showing sidereal time. sidereal day the time between successive meridional transits of a star or esp. of the first point of Aries, about four minutes shorter than the solar day. sidereal time time measured by the apparent diurnal motion of the stars. sidereal year a year longer than the solar year by 20 minutes 23 seconds because of precession.

Etymology

L sidereus f. sidus sideris star

THESAURUS

sidereal

Cynthian, anagalactic, asteroidal, astral, astrologic, astrologistic, astrologous, astronomic, astrophysical, celestial, circumplanetary, cislunar, empyreal, empyrean, equinoctial, extragalactic, galactic, heavenly, heliacal, intercosmic, interplanetary, intersidereal, interstellar, lunar, lunary, lunate, lunular, lunulate, meteoric, meteoritic, nebular, nebulose, nebulous, planetal, planetarian, planetary, planetesimal, semilunar, solar, sphery, star-spangled, star-studded, starry, stellar, stellary, terrestrial, uranic, zodiacal

ROGET THESAURUS

sidereal

World

N world, creation, nature, universe, earth, globe, wide world, cosmos, kosmos, terraqueous globe, sphere, macrocosm, megacosm, music of the spheres, heavens, sky, welkin, empyrean, starry cope, starry heaven, starry host, firmament, Midgard, supersensible regions, varuna, vault of heaven, canopy of heaven, celestial spaces, heavenly bodies, stars, asteroids, nebulae, galaxy, milky way, galactic circle, via lactea, ame no kawa, sun, orb of day, Apollo, Phoebus, photosphere, chromosphere, solar system, planet, planetoid, comet, satellite, moon, orb of night, Diana, silver-footed queen, aerolite, meteor, planetary ring, falling star, shooting star, meteorite, uranolite, constellation, zodiac, signs of the zodiac, Charles's wain, Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Great Bear, Southern Cross, Orion's belt, Cassiopea's chair, Pleiades, colures, equator, ecliptic, orbit, astronomy, uranography, uranology, cosmology, cosmography, cosmogony, eidouranion, orrery, geodesy, star gazing, star gazer, astronomer, observatory, planetarium, cosmic, cosmical, mundane, terrestrial, terrestrious, terraqueous, terrene, terreous, telluric, earthly, geotic, under the sun, sublunary, subastral, solar, heliacal, lunar, celestial, heavenly, sphery, starry, stellar, sidereal, sideral, astral, nebular, uranic, in all creation, on the face of the globe, here below, under the sun, die Weltgeschichte ist das Weltergesicht, earth is but the frozen echo of the silent voice o, green calm below, blue quietness above, hanging in a golden chain this pendant World, nothing in nature is unbeautiful, silently as a dream the fabric rose, some touch of nature's genial glow, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, through knowledge we behold the World's creation.