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URANUS

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U⋅ra⋅nus

  [yoor-uh-nuhs, yoo-rey-]
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–noun
1. Astronomy. the planet seventh in order from the sun, having an equatorial diameter of 32,600 miles (56,460 km), a mean distance from the sun of 1,784 million miles (2,871 million km), a period of revolution of 84.07 years, and 15 moons.
2. Also, Ouranos. Classical Mythology. the personification of Heaven and ruler of the world, son and husband of Gaea (Earth) and father of the Titans, who was castrated and dethroned by his youngest son, Cronus, at the instigation of Gaea.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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U·ra·nus   (yŏŏr'ə-nəs, yŏŏ-rā'nəs)   
n.  

  1. Greek Mythology The earliest supreme god, a personification of the sky, who was the son and consort of Gaea and the father of the Cyclopes and Titans.

  2. The seventh planet from the sun, revolving about it every 84.01 years at a mean distance of approximately 2.9 billion kilometers (1.8 billion miles), having a mean equatorial diameter of 51,118 kilometers (31,764 miles) and a mass 14.6 times that of Earth.


[Late Latin Ūranus, from Greek ouranos, heaven, Uranus.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Cultural Dictionary

Uranus [(yoor-uh-nuhs, yoo-ray-nuhs)]

In astronomy, the seventh major planet from the sun, named for the Greek god of the sky. Uranus was the first planet discovered in modern times (1781). (See solar system.)

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

Uranus 
first planet discovered that was not known in ancient times, named for the god of Heaven, husband of Gaia, the Earth, from L. Uranus, from Gk. Ouranos lit. "heaven," in Gk. cosmology, the god who personifies the heavens, father of the titans. Cf. Urania, name of the Muse of astronomy, from Gk. Ourania, fem. of ouranios, lit. "heavenly." Planet discovered and identified as such in 1781 by Sir William Herschel (it had been observed before, but mistaken for a star, cf. 1690 when John Flamsteed cataloged it as 34 Tauri); Herschel proposed calling it Georgium Sidus, lit. "George's Star," in honour of his patron, King George III of England.
"I cannot but wish to take this opportunity of expressing my sense of gratitude, by giving the name of Georgium Sidus ... to a star which (with respect to us) first began to shine under His auspicious reign." [Sir William Herschel, 1783]
The planet was known in Eng. in 1780s as the Georgian Planet; Fr. astronomers began calling Herschel, and ult. Ger. astronomer Johann Bode proposed Uranus as in conformity with other planet names. However, the name didn't come into common usage until c.1850.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Science Dictionary
Uranus   (yr'ə-nəs, y-rā'-)  Pronunciation Key 
The seventh planet from the Sun and the third largest, with a diameter about four times that of Earth. Though slightly larger than Nepture, Uranus is the least massive of the four gas giants and is the only one with no internal heat source. A cloud layer of frozen methane gives it a faint bluish-green color, and it is encircled by a thin system of 11 rings and 27 moons. Uranus's axis is tilted 98° from the vertical—the greatest such tilt in the solar system—with the result that its poles are in continuous darkness or continuous sunlight for nearly half of its 84-year orbital period. See Table at solar system.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Computing Dictionary

Uranus
Hideyuki Nakashima , 1993. A logic-based knowledge representation language. An extension of Prolog written in Common Lisp, with Lisp-like syntax. Extends Prolog with a multiple world mechanism, plus term descriptions to provide functional programming.
(ftp://etlport.etl.go.jp/pub/uranus/ftp).

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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