milky way
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.50 in modern English
23
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
1
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
The Milky Way Galaxy, the galaxy in which Earth is located.
Example Sentences
- "Holonyms: Local Group < Virgo Supercluster < Laniakea < Universe"
- "Meronyms: Earth < Solar System < Orion Arm"
- "This whole earth which we inhabit is but a point in space. How far apart, think you, dwell the two most distant inhabitants of yonder star, the breadth of whose disk cannot be appreciated by our instruments? Why should I feel lonely? is not our planet in the Milky Way?"
- "From a cosmic perspective, even our host galaxy, the Milky Way, is not particularly special[…]"
- "By combining the data from multiple telescopes, astronomers determined the star’s position and velocity in space, allowing them to predict that it will exit the Milky Way at some point."
- "[…] a random shower of amber lights—a spray of golden sparks that […] glinted softly upon the sea of dark foliage like the pallid stars of the milky-way."
Etymology
From Middle English Milky Wey, a calque of Latin Via Lactea (literally “milky road”), a calque of Ancient Greek γαλαξίας (galaxías), referring to its appearance as a pale band of stars across the sky. Compare also Old Norse Mjólkrhringr (“Milky Way”, literally “milk-ring, milk-circle”). The reference to the galaxy is an extension of the second sense.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Law.
Inflected Forms
the Milky Way (canonical)