PLEIADES

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Pleiades mean? 

• PLEIADES (noun)
  The noun PLEIADES has 2 senses:

1. (Greek mythology) 7 daughters of Atlas and half-sisters of the Hyades; placed among the stars to save them from the pursuit of Orion

2. a star cluster in the constellation Taurus

  Familiarity information: PLEIADES used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PLEIADES (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(Greek mythology) 7 daughters of Atlas and half-sisters of the Hyades; placed among the stars to save them from the pursuit of Orion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("Pleiades" is a kind of...):

nymph ((classical mythology) a minor nature goddess usually depicted as a beautiful maiden)

Meronyms (members of "Pleiades"):

Asterope; Sterope ((Greek mythology) one of the 7 Pleiades)

Domain category:

Greek mythology (the mythology of the ancient Greeks)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A star cluster in the constellation Taurus

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Instance hypernyms:

bunch; clump; cluster; clustering (a grouping of a number of similar things)

Meronyms (members of "Pleiades"):

Asterope; Sterope (one of the stars in the star cluster Pleiades)

Holonyms ("Pleiades" is a member of...):

Taurus (a zodiacal constellation in the northern hemisphere near Orion; between Aries and Gemini)

 Context examples 

During its observations of the Pleiades, a clear pattern emerged in the data: More massive stars tended to rotate slowly, while less massive stars tended to rotate rapidly.

(Kepler Watches Stellar Dancers in the Pleiades Cluster, NASA)

The Pleiades star cluster is one of the closest and most easily seen star clusters, residing just 445 light-years away from Earth, on average.

(Kepler Watches Stellar Dancers in the Pleiades Cluster, NASA)

Like cosmic ballet dancers, the stars of the Pleiades cluster are spinning.

(Kepler Watches Stellar Dancers in the Pleiades Cluster, NASA)

Unlike the tiny, sunspot blemishes on our middle-aged sun, starspots can be gargantuan in stars as young as those in the Pleiades because stellar youth is associated with greater turbulence and magnetic activity.

(Kepler Watches Stellar Dancers in the Pleiades Cluster, NASA)