supernova

UK/ˌsuː.pə(ɹ)ˈnəʊ.və/US/ˌsuː.pə(ɹ)ˈnəʊ.və/

nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,381 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: supernovas

A supernova is the colossal explosion of a dying star. Go supernova, a distant supernova, the supernova remnant.

For a few weeks it can outshine an entire galaxy, and every atom heavier than iron in your body was made in one. Chinese astronomers recorded the supernova of 1054, whose remains are the Crab Nebula.

Definitions of supernova

1nounsupernovaThe colossal explosion of a dying star.C1
“Astronomers watched the supernova light up a distant galaxy for several weeks.”

supernova is an explosion.

Where it comes from

Latin
super-
Middle English
super-
English
super
English, today
supernova

Built from

super · Latin — above

From super- + nova. super comes from super-, from Middle English super-, from Latin super-, from super (“above”). a doublet of over and hyper.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Science & Space

Practise this word

supernova in the wild

A supernova occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star, or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion.
Supernova
SN 1987A was a Type II supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.
SN 1987A
Light and neutrinos from the explosion reached Earth on February 23, 1987, and it was designated "SN 1987A" as the first supernova discovered that year.
SN 1987A
SN 1604, also known as Kepler's Supernova, Kepler's Nova or Kepler's Star, was a Type Ia supernova that occurred in the Milky Way, in the constellation Ophiuchus.
Kepler's Supernova
A supernova remnant (SNR) is the structure resulting from the explosion of a star in a supernova.
Supernova remnant

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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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