Venus

false-color image produced from radar images taken by the Magellan probe

Ve·nus

(vē′nəs)

1. Roman Mythology The goddess of love and beauty.

2. The second planet from the sun, having an average radius of 6,052 kilometers (3,761 miles), a mass 0.82 times that of Earth, and a sidereal period of revolution about the sun of 224.7 days at a mean distance of approximately 108.2 million kilometers (67.2 million miles).

[Middle English, from Old English, from Latin, love, Venus; see wen- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Venus

(ˈviːnəs)

1. (Classical Myth & Legend) the Roman goddess of love. Greek counterpart: Aphrodite

2. (Anatomy) mount of Venus See mons veneris

Venus

(ˈviːnəs)

1. (Celestial Objects) one of the inferior planets and the second nearest to the sun, visible as a bright morning or evening star. Its surface is extremely hot (over 400°C) and is completely shrouded by dense cloud. The atmosphere is principally carbon dioxide. Mean distance from sun: 108 million km; period of revolution around sun: 225 days; period of axial rotation: 244.3 days (retrograde motion); diameter and mass: 96.5 and 81.5 per cent that of earth respectively

2. (Alchemy) the alchemical name for copper¹

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Ve•nus

(ˈvi nəs)

n., pl. -us•es.

1. an ancient Italian goddess, identified by the Romans with Aphrodite as the goddess of love and beauty.

2. an exceptionally beautiful woman.

3. the most brilliant planet, second in order from the sun, having an equatorial diameter of 7521 miles (12,104 km), a mean distance from the sun of 67.2 million miles (108.2 million km), a period of revolution of 224.68 days, and no moons.

4. Also called Ve′nus fig`ure. (sometimes l.c.) a statuette of a female figure, usu. carved of ivory and typically having exaggerated breasts, belly, or buttocks, often found in Upper Paleolithic cultures from Siberia to France.

[< Latin Venus, s. Vener- orig. a neuter common n. meaning “physical desire,” hence “qualities exciting desire, charm,” “a goddess personifying sexual attractiveness”; c. Skt vanaḥ desire, akin to wish; compare venerate, venom]

Ve·nus

(vē′nəs)

The second planet from the sun and the fourth smallest, with a diameter about 400 miles less than that of Earth. Venus comes nearer to Earth than any other planet and is the brightest object in the night sky aside from Earth's moon. It is the hottest planet in the solar system, with an average surface temperature of 867°F (464°C). See Table at solar system. See Note at planet.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	Venus - the second nearest planet to the sun; it is peculiar in that its rotation is slow and retrograde (in the opposite sense of the Earth and all other planets except Uranus); it is visible from Earth as an early `morning star' or an `evening star'; "before it was known that they were the same object the evening star was called Venus and the morning star was called Lucifer" solar system - the sun with the celestial bodies that revolve around it in its gravitational field
	2.	Venus - goddess of love; counterpart of Greek Aphrodite Urania
	3.	Venus - type genus of the family Veneridae: genus of edible clams with thick oval shells genus Venus mollusk genus - a genus of mollusks family Veneridae, Veneridae - hard-shell clams Mercenaria mercenaria, hard clam, Venus mercenaria, hard-shell clam, quahaug, quahog, round clam - an edible American clam; the heavy shells were used as money by some American Indians

Translations

Венера

Venuše

Venus

Venus

Αφροδίτη

Venus

VeenusVenus

Venus

Vénus

נוגה

Venera

Vénusz

Venus

Venere

Venus

Venera

Venus

Wenus

Venus

Венера

Venera

Венера

Venus

Venüs

Венера

Sao Kim

Venus

[ˈviːnəs] N (Myth) → Venus f (Astron) → Venus m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

Venus

[ˈviːnəs] n

(= planet) → Vénus f

(= goddess) → vénus f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Venus

n → Venus f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Venus

[ˈviːnəs] n (Astron, Myth) → Venere f

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

With slowly dawning remembrance, Mr Venus rises, and holds his candle over the little counter, and holds it down towards the legs, natural and artificial, of Mr Wegg.

But, the little shop is so excessively dark, is stuck so full of black shelves and brackets and nooks and corners, that he sees Mr Venus's cup and saucer only because it is close under the candle, and does not see from what mysterious recess Mr Venus produces another for himself until it is under his nose.

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A CAT fell in love with a handsome young man, and entreated Venus to change her into the form of a woman.

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Lessing has advanced excellent reasons for supposing that the Martians have actually succeeded in effecting a landing on the planet Venus. Seven months ago now, Venus and Mars were in alignment with the sun; that is to say, Mars was in opposition from the point of view of an observer on Venus.

It may be that across the immensity of space the Martians have watched the fate of these pioneers of theirs and learned their lesson, and that on the planet Venus they have found a securer settlement.

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You enter, and proceed to that most-visited little gallery that exists in the world--the Tribune--and there, against the wall, without obstructing rag or leaf, you may look your fill upon the foulest, the vilest, the obscenest picture the world possesses--Titian's Venus. It isn't that she is naked and stretched out on a bed--no, it is the attitude of one of her arms and hand.

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Venus, bright and silvery, shone with her soft light low down in the west behind the birch trees, and high up in the east twinkled the red lights of Arcturus.

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Meanwhile the bard began to sing the loves of Mars and Venus, and how they first began their intrigue in the house of Vulcan.

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Not that I would have my reader imagine, that this was one of those wanton smiles which Homer would have you conceive came from Venus, when he calls her the laughter-loving goddess; nor was it one of those smiles which Lady Seraphina shoots from the stage-box, and which Venus would quit her immortality to be able to equal.

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The sun had set and in the southwestern sky hung Venus, glorious and golden, having drawn as near to her earth-sister as is possible for her.

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Still, taunt me not with the gifts that golden Venus has given me; they are precious; let not a man disdain them, for the gods give them where they are minded, and none can have them for the asking.

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The four personages of the prologue were bewailing themselves in their mortal embarrassment, when Venus in person, ( vera incessa patuit dea ) presented herself to them, clad in a fine robe bearing the heraldic device of the ship of the city of Paris.

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