Gemini

How to spell gemini

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce gemini

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does gemini mean?

1. nounThe third sign of the zodiac, associated with people born roughly between 21 May and 20 June.
2. nounA constellation in the northern sky, named for the twin stars Castor and Pollux.

Gemini in a sentence

• As a gemini, she was born in early June.

• The astronomer pointed his telescope toward gemini to find Castor and Pollux.

• The horoscope column listed gemini between Taurus and Cancer.

• On clear winter nights the bright pair of stars in gemini is easy to spot.

Where does gemini come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Gemini comes straight from Latin, where it is the plural of geminus, an adjective meaning 'twin' or 'born at the same time'. The Romans used the word for the pair of stars they pictured as twin brothers, Castor and Pollux, the legendary sons of Leda in Greek and Roman myth. As the name of the third sign of the zodiac it has been used in English astronomical and astrological writing since the Middle Ages, sitting comfortably in Latin form rather than being translated. The same gemin- root also gives us 'geminate' (to double or pair) and the rarer 'gemination', the linguistic doubling of a sound. The spelling trap is simply remembering the single m and the closing -i rather than -y, both of which point back to its Latin plural origin.

How the word is built

• gemin- (from Latin geminus: twin, born together)
• -i (Latin plural ending)