Constellation

How to spell constellation

13 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce constellation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does constellation mean?

1. nounA recognised group of stars that forms a pattern in the night sky.
2. nounA group of related people, things, or qualities considered together.

Constellation in a sentence

• Orion is the easiest constellation to find on a clear winter night.

• The report described a whole constellation of factors driving up housing costs.

• The planetarium guide pointed out each constellation and its brightest stars.

• The gala drew a dazzling constellation of business leaders and investors.

Where does constellation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin constellatio, which was built from con- meaning 'together' and stella meaning 'star', so the literal idea was 'a set of stars positioned together'. Late Latin astrologers and astronomers used it for a fixed pattern of stars in the sky, and that sense passed into Old French as constellacion before English adopted it in the 1300s. Early on the term carried a strong astrological flavour, referring to how the stars were arranged at a particular moment and the influence that arrangement was thought to have on human affairs. Over time it settled into the modern, more scientific meaning of a recognised star grouping, while also gaining a figurative use for any related cluster of things. The Latin stella survives in many relatives such as 'stellar', 'interstellar', and the name Stella; remembering that 'star' core (stell) helps fix the doubled letter l in the middle of the spelling.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• stella (star)
• -tion (noun of state)