- pronunciation:
- gae
l
k
si
- features:
- Word History, Word Explorer
| part of speech: |
noun |
| inflections: |
galaxies |
| definition: |
a collection of billions of stars and other matter held together by gravity. Our planet Earth and the sun belong to the Milky Way galaxy. They are only tiny parts of this galaxy.
A telescope helps us see other galaxies from Earth.
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The word
galaxy comes
galaktos, an ancient Greek word that means "milk." The Latin word for "milk",
lac, also came from this Greek word. The Latin phrase
via lactea, or "the Milky Way," is where the name of Earth's galaxy comes from.