lodestar
/ˈloʊd.stɑɹ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.00 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A star used as a navigation reference, particularly a pole star such as Polaris.
noun
A calculated amount to award as attorney's fees derived by multiplying the reasonable number of hours spent working on a case by the reasonable hourly billing rate.
Example Sentences
- "Tho when her ways he could no more descry, But to and fro at disaventure strayd; Like as a ship, whose lodestarre, suddenly Covered with cloudes, her pilot hath dismayd"
- "He was no wavering mariner; he had taken his course from a single lodestar, by which he had steered from the first day he had seen it in his heavens — the lodestar that had shone for him and would always shine."
- "Selfe loue, to him ſelf tender, to the reſt tough, / Is, of iuſt iuſtice, neither roote, braunce, nor bough. / Loue (namely ſelfe loue) corruptibly growyng, / Is cheefe lodeſter of lets, in iuſtice ſhowing."
- "May we not define its true aim to be that of awakening in the heart those feelings towards moral and religious objects, which like attractions drawing towards the great lodestars of existence, shall ever keep the life right and stedfast?"
- "We need a new lodestar, a new map of the world that once again includes a distant, uncharted continent—“Utopia.”"
- "With export controls still restricting the sale of the most advanced chips to China and its university students increasingly unwelcome in the U.S., technological self-sufficiency has become Beijing’s lodestar."
Etymology
From Middle English lode (“journey, course”) + star, where lode is an archaic noun from the verb lithe (“to go, journey”), related to lead. Other Middle English spellings include: 14th century loode sterre, lood-sterre, lade-sterne; and 15th century lode sterre. Cognate with Old Norse leiðarstjarna, Dutch leidster, German Leitstern, Danish ledestjerne, Swedish ledstjärna.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: -
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈloʊd.stɑɹ/
- British English: /ˈləʊd.stɑː(ɹ)/