Word.ws English Dictionary

magnetar

magnetar noun: a neutron star or pulsar with an extremely powerful magnetic field, especially those on which starquakes occur, thought to be the source of some gamma-ray bursts.

Noun

magnetar (plural magnetars)

  1. A neutron star or pulsar with an extremely powerful magnetic field, especially those on which starquakes occur, thought to be the source of some gamma-ray bursts.
    • This signal could be detected with Advanced LIGO-class detectors up to the distance of the Virgo cluster, where ≥ 1 yr⁻¹ magnetars are expected to form.2007, S. Dall'Osso, L. Stella, “Newborn magnetars as sources of gravitational radiation: constraints from high energy observations of magnetar candidates”, in Silvia Zane, Roberto Turolla, Dany Page...
    • The radio-silent neutron stars include anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs), soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs), and “quiescent” neutron star candidates in SNRs. There is growing evidence that AXPs and SGRs are indeed magnetars (see [109] for a review).2008, W. Becker, F, Haberl, J Trümper, 14: Pulsars and Isolated Neutron Stars, Joachim E. Trümper, Günther Hasinger (editors), The Universe in X-Rays, page 193

Forms of magnetar

pluralmagnetars

Origin of magnetar

Blend of magnet + pulsar. By surface analysis, magnet + -ar.

Questions about magnetar

What does magnetar mean?
Magnetar means a neutron star or pulsar with an extremely powerful magnetic field, especially those on which starquakes occur, thought to be the source of some gamma-ray bursts.
What part of speech is magnetar?
Magnetar is a noun.
What is the plural of magnetar?
The plural of magnetar is magnetars.

Words near magnetar in the dictionary

  1. magnet school
  2. magnet schools
  3. magnet therapy
  4. magnet-
  5. magnetabsorption
  6. magnetar
  7. magnetarch
  8. magnetarium
  9. magnetariums
  10. magnetars
  11. Magnetawan

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: magnetar (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-magnetar.wav.

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