celestial

UK/sɪˈlɛs.ti.əl/US/səˈlɛs.t͡ʃ(ə)l/

adjectiveC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #8,031 of 15,258neutral

Celestial means to do with the sky and the heavens. A celestial body, celestial navigation, the celestial sphere.

In astronomy it is a plain technical word: a celestial body is anything out there, and celestial navigation is finding your position from the stars, which still works when every satellite fails. The celestial sphere is the imaginary dome positions are mapped on.

Definitions of celestial

1adjectivecelestialTo do with the sky and the heavens.C1
“The painted ceiling showed a celestial scene of stars, clouds and angels.”

celestial is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin caelestis comes from caelum, the sky or heaven.

Medieval Latin
caelestiālis
Old French
celestial
Middle English
celestial
English, today
celestial

Built from

caelum · Latin — heaven; sky
天 · cmn — heaven; sky
朝 · cmn — dynasty; emperor’s reign; imperial court; etc.

From Middle English celestial, from Old French celestial, from Medieval Latin caelestiālis. The is derived from Late Middle English celestial (“relating to the heavens or sky; (Christianity) relating to heaven, divine, heavenly”), borrowed from Old French celestial (modern French céleste), from Medieval Latin caelestiālis (“celestial”), or directly from its Latin caelestis (“of or in the heavens, heavenly; (figurative) of the gods, divine; etc.”), from caelum (“heaven; sky”) (ultimate etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European kéh₂ilos (“whole”)) + -estris. The and are derived from the adjective.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

celestial in the wild

Any given point in a celestial coordinate system lies in one of the modern constellations.
Constellation
Some astronomical naming systems include the constellation where a given celestial object is found to convey its approximate location in the sky.
Constellation
The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the apparent path of the Sun on the celestial sphere, resulting from Earth's orbit around the Sun.
Ecliptic
All objects in the sky can be conceived as being projected upon the inner surface of the celestial sphere, which may be centered on Earth or the observer.
Celestial sphere
Despite their apparently fixed positions, the celestial poles in the long term do not actually remain permanently fixed against the background of the stars.
Celestial pole

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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