Word.ws English Dictionary

astrognosy

Syllables: as·tro·gno·sy/əˈstɹɒɡnəsi//əˈstɹɑɡnəsi/

astrognosy noun: knowledge of the stars, especially the fixed stars; the branch of astronomy dealing with the fixed stars.

astrognosy: knowledge of the stars, especially the fixed stars; the branch of astronomy dealing with the fixed...
Image: Odehjas, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

astrognosy (uncountable)

  1. (archaic) Knowledge of the stars, especially the fixed stars; the branch of astronomy dealing with the fixed stars.
    • It is curious at least, that his Philosophy obliged Pythagoras, to make the Solar System #61;10, tho' his imperfect Astrognosy reduced him to the shift of including the moon, and imagining an Antiχθων ["anti-earth, anti-world"] and taking the whole as a completory Unit—Sun, Mer[cury,] Ven[us,]...c. 1818 (date written), Samuel Taylor Coleridge, edited by George Whalley, The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Marginalia II: Camden to Hutton (Bollingen Series; LXXV), London: Routledge...
    • One of the best works on astrognosy, in the present state of this science, is [Johann Elert] Bode's Anleitung zur Kenntniss des gestirnten Himmels, 9th ed. Berlin, 1823, with plates (Guide to the Knowledge of the Starry Heavens). On the subject of the constellations, and astrognosy of the ancients...1830, “Constellations”, in Francis Lieber, E[dward] Wigglesworth, editors, Encyclopædia Americana. […], volume III, Philadelphia, Pa.: Carey and Lea […], →OCLC, page 464, column 1

Origin of astrognosy

From astro- (prefix meaning ‘star’) + -gnosy (suffix denoting the scientific knowledge of a subject), modelled on German Astrognosie, or its etymon Late Latin astrognosia, from Ancient Greek ἄστρον (ástron, “celestial body; (specifically) fixed star; planet”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eHs- (“to burn; to glow”)) + -γνωσία (-gnōsía) (from γνῶσις (gnôsis, “inquiry; knowledge”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know; to recognize”)).

Questions about astrognosy

What does astrognosy mean?
Astrognosy means knowledge of the stars, especially the fixed stars; the branch of astronomy dealing with the fixed stars.
What part of speech is astrognosy?
Astrognosy is a noun.
How do you pronounce astrognosy?
Astrognosy is pronounced /əˈstɹɒɡnəsi/ (UK).

Words near astrognosy in the dictionary

  1. astrogliopathy
  2. astroglioses
  3. astrogliosis
  4. astrogliotic
  5. astroglosis
  6. astrognosy
  7. astrogonic
  8. astrogony
  9. astrograph
  10. astrographic
  11. astrographies

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: astrognosy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-astrognosy.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-astrognosy.wav.

Cite this entry: “astrognosy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/astrognosy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.