Word.ws English Dictionary

novae

novae is the plural of nova.

Meaning of nova

Noun

nova (plural novae or novas)

  1. Any sudden brightening of a previously inconspicuous star.
    • In these stellar pairings, if the two stars are close together, the white dwarf will siphon mass away from its companion and have an outburst called a nova. And when the white dwarf accumulates too much mass, it will collapse and explode in a supernova.2024 August 21, Ashley Strickland, “An unusual object is moving so fast it could escape the Milky Way. Scientists aren’t certain what it is”, in CNN, archived from the original on 24 Sep 2024

See all 3 meanings of nova

Forms of novae

alternative formnovas

Phrases with novae

Questions about novae

What is novae the plural of?
Novae is the plural of nova.

Words near novae in the dictionary

  1. Novack
  2. Novacks
  3. novaculite
  4. novaculites
  5. novaculitic
  6. novae
  7. Novaia Zemlia
  8. novain
  9. novaine
  10. Novak
  11. novakite

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: novae (page history and authors); nova (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)-Wodencafe-novae.wav.

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