Stardust

How to spell stardust

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce stardust

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does stardust mean?

1. nounA magical or dreamlike quality; figuratively, a sense of glamour, wonder, or romance.
2. nounTiny particles of cosmic matter scattered through space, including the dust from which stars and planets form.

Stardust in a sentence

• The gala had a touch of stardust that made every guest feel special.

• The lecture explained that every atom in our bodies began as stardust inside ancient stars.

• A little stardust surrounds anyone who has worked alongside the famous director.

• Clouds of interstellar stardust slowly collapse to form new suns.

Where does stardust come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound, built from two very old native words. The first element, 'star', descends from the Old English steorra, a word shared across the Germanic family and ultimately tied to an ancient root that also gave Latin stella and Greek aster, all naming the points of light in the night sky. The second element, 'dust', comes from Old English dust, meaning fine dry particles, the same word still used for the powder that settles on shelves. The compound itself is fairly modern, appearing in the nineteenth century, first in a literal astronomical sense for the cloud of fine particles and tiny meteoric matter scattered through space. From there it drifted into figurative use for a dreamy, magical, almost intoxicating quality, the sense behind the phrase a sprinkling of stardust. Because both halves are common everyday words, the only real spelling decision is remembering it is written as one solid word.

How the word is built

• star (from Old English steorra, a star)
• dust (from Old English dust, fine dry particles)