GALACTIC

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does galactic mean? 

• GALACTIC (adjective)
  The adjective GALACTIC has 2 senses:

1. of or relating to a galaxy (especially our galaxy the Milky Way)

2. inconceivably large

  Familiarity information: GALACTIC used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GALACTIC (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of or relating to a galaxy (especially our galaxy the Milky Way)

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

the galactic plane

Pertainym:

galaxy ((astronomy) a collection of star systems; any of the billions of systems each having many stars and nebulae and dust)

Derivation:

galaxy ((astronomy) a collection of star systems; any of the billions of systems each having many stars and nebulae and dust)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Inconceivably large

Synonyms:

astronomic; astronomical; galactic

Similar:

big; large (above average in size or number or quantity or magnitude or extent)

 Context examples 

Through analysing the characteristics of light, spectrometers can tell us about the processes within galactic nebulae, millions of light years away, down to the characteristics of protein molecules.

(Nanowires replace Newton’s famous glass prism, University of Cambridge)

Using infrared survey images from WISE, the team discovered two clusters of stars thousands of light-years below the galactic disk.

(Stars Found Far from Galaxy Center, JPL/NASA)

It may be the result of an active galactic nucleus, where energy is gushing from a supermassive black hole.

(Massive Dead Disk Galaxy Challenges Theories of Galaxy Evolution, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Because the galactic core is so far away, the light of the forming galaxy that is observable from Earth was actually created 11 billion years ago, just 3 billion years after the Big Bang.

(Telescopes Uncover Early Construction of Giant Galaxy, NASA)

Especially intense and luminous galactic centers are known as active galactic nuclei.

(Hubble's Megamaser Galaxy, ESA/NASA)

A galactic halo contains both dark and ordinary—or baryonic—matter that is primarily in the form of a hot ionised gas.

(Enigmatic radio burst illuminates a galaxy’s tranquil ​halo, ESO)

As a result, only about two dozen galactic stellar black holes have been well identified and measured.

(Unpredicted stellar black hole discovered by astronomers, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The observed CH+ reveals dense shock waves, powered by hot, fast galactic winds originating inside the galaxies’ star forming regions.

(ALMA Finds Huge Hidden Reservoirs of Turbulent Gas in Distant Galaxies, ESO)

The so-called "rogue" planet does not revolve around a star, but instead rotates around the galactic center in interstellar space.

(Astronomers Discover New Planet Not Orbiting Any Star, VOA)

Because the galaxy does not spin in uniform ways, the researchers had to come up with such a curve to better understand the distances of the galactic objects.

(Researchers Estimate Mass of Milky Way to Be 3.9 Tredecillion Pounds, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)