HALO (haloes)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: haloes   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does halo mean? 

• HALO (noun)
  The noun HALO has 3 senses:

1. an indication of radiant light drawn around the head of a saint

2. a toroidal shape

3. a circle of light around the sun or moon

  Familiarity information: HALO used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HALO (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An indication of radiant light drawn around the head of a saint

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

aura; aureole; gloriole; glory; halo; nimbus

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

light; lightness (the visual effect of illumination on objects or scenes as created in pictures)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A toroidal shape

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Synonyms:

anchor ring; annulus; doughnut; halo; ring

Context example:

a halo of smoke

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

toroid (the doughnut-shaped object enclosed by a torus)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "halo"):

fairy circle; fairy ring (a ring of fungi marking the periphery of the perennial underground growth of the mycelium)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A circle of light around the sun or moon

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

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

atmospheric phenomenon (a physical phenomenon associated with the atmosphere)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "halo"):

parhelic circle; parhelic ring; solar halo (a luminous halo parallel to the horizon at the altitude of the sun; caused by ice crystals in the atmosphere)

 Context examples 

While the luminous part of a massive galaxy might be around 30 000 light years across, its roughly spherical halo is ten times larger in diameter.

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

A morphologic finding referring to the presence of a cellular infiltrate that is composed of cells with perinuclear cytoplasmic halos, resembling oligodendrocytes.

(Oligodendroglioma-Like Component with Perinuclear Cytoplasmic Halos Present, NCI Thesaurus)

The craters’ bright walls and rims stand out from their dark floors and surrounding terrain, creating the halo effect.

(Pluto’s ‘Halo’ Craters, NASA)

Variants include the Spitz nevus, halo nevus, blue nevus, and balloon cell nevus.

(Benign Melanocytic Skin Nevus, NCI Thesaurus)

Bigger halos have more gravity and, therefore, pull other galaxies toward them.

(NASA's WISE findings poke hole in black hole 'Doughnut' theory, NASA)

An ependymoma, often supratentorial in location, characterized by the presence of ependymal cells with a perinuclear halo.

(Clear Cell Ependymoma, NCI Thesaurus)

A benign melanocytic nevus with a halo appearance.

(Halo Nevus, NCI Thesaurus)

Based on the size of the halo, the HAWC team concluded that Geminga positrons at these energies only rarely reach Earth.

(NASA’s Fermi Mission Links Nearby Pulsar’s Gamma-ray ‘Halo’ to Antimatter Puzzle, NASA)

This phenomenon, with the field alternating in direction, has never been seen before in the halo of a galaxy.

(Giant magnetic ropes seen in Whale Galaxy's halo, National Science Foundation)

These gas halos are the perfect food for supermassive black holes at the centre of these galaxies, which are now seen as they were over 12.5 billion years ago.

(ESO Observations Reveal Black Holes' Breakfast at the Cosmic Dawn, ESO)