Word.ws English Dictionary

wandering star

wandering star noun: a star which seems to move in the sky; a planet.

Noun

wandering star (plural wandering stars)

  1. A star which seems to move in the sky; a planet.
    • Might it not be possible, that this wandering star would pass by the sun and reappear in the east?1877, Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel, The planetary and stellar worlds
    • [...] Or warring with the spirits who may dare Dispute with him Who made all empire, empire; or recalling Some wandering star, which shoots through the abyss Whose tenants dying, while their world is falling Share the dim destiny of clay in this.1988, Alan Richardson, A Mental Theater
    Synonyms:
    wanderstar

Examples of wandering star in a sentence

  • The word planet is an old Greek word meaning "wandering star" (planets wander, Fixed Stars do not) — so either term is correct, although modern popular usage is planet.[ 2000, Linda Goodman, Linda Goodman's Star Signs
  • In ancient times, a fixed star was so named to distinguish it from a wandering star or planet.2005, Constance Stellas, Advanced Astrology for Life:
  • Now he turned his flight, a prayer short of light-speed, towards the wandering star.2009, Gardner Dozois, The Year's Best Science Fiction:

Synonyms of wandering star

Forms of wandering star

pluralwandering stars

Origin of wandering star

Calque of Ancient Greek ἀστὴρ πλανήτης (astḕr planḗtēs) as distinguished from the fixed stars.

Questions about wandering star

What does wandering star mean?
Wandering star means a star which seems to move in the sky; a planet.
How do you use wandering star in a sentence?
The word planet is an old Greek word meaning "wandering star" (planets wander, Fixed Stars do not) — so either term is correct, although modern popular usage is planet.
What part of speech is wandering star?
Wandering star is a noun.
What is the plural of wandering star?
The plural of wandering star is wandering stars.

Words near wandering star in the dictionary

  1. wandering sets
  2. wandering spider
  3. wandering spiders
  4. wandering spleen
  5. wandering spleens
  6. wandering star
  7. wandering stars
  8. wandering whistling duck
  9. wandering whistling ducks
  10. wandering womb
  11. wandering wombs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wandering star (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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