Word.ws English Dictionary

orbe

orbe is the obsolete spelling of orb.

Meaning of orb

Noun

orb (countable and uncountable, plural orbs)

  1. A spherical body; a sphere, especially one of the celestial spheres; a sun, planet, or star
    • In the small orb of one particular tear.c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry...
    Synonyms:
    ball, globe, sphere
  2. Celestial sphere; one of the azure transparent spheres conceived by the ancients to be enclosed one within another, and to carry the heavenly bodies in their revolutions
  3. A structural motif or finial in the shape of a sphere
  4. An orbit of an heavenly body
    • The schoolmen were like astronomers, which did feign eccentrics, and epicycles, and such engines of orbs.1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Superstition”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC
  5. (rare) The time period of an orbit
    • Know none before us, self-begot, self-rais'd / By our own quick'ning power, when fatal course / Had circl'd his full Orbe, the birth mature / Of this our native Heav'n, Ethereal Sons.1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book V
    Synonyms:
    year
  6. (poetic) The eye, seen as a luminous and spherical entity
    • A drop serene hath quenched their orbs.1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
    Synonyms:
    eye

See all 16 meanings of orb

Proper noun capitalized: Orbe

Orbe

  1. A surname.
    • “In light of the U.S. government’s requirements, Alcoa has adjusted its attendance at the St. Petersburg International Forum and will participate via its most senior Russian executives,” Orbe said.2014 May 2, Mark Thompson and Aaron Smith, “U.S. presses CEOs to skip Russia’s Davos”, in CNN Business

Forms of orbe

pluralorbes

Questions about orbe

What does orbe mean?
Orbe means a surname.
What is orbe the obsolete spelling of?
Orbe is the obsolete spelling of orb.
What part of speech is orbe?
Orbe is a proper noun.

Words near orbe in the dictionary

  1. orbate
  2. orbatide
  3. orbatides
  4. orbation
  5. Orbaugh
  6. orbe
  7. orbed
  8. Orbegoso
  9. Orbelian
  10. Orbelians
  11. orbic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: orbe (page history and authors); Orbe (page history and authors); orb (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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Cite this entry: “orbe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/orbe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.