centaur

[ sen-tawr ]
See synonyms for centaur on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. Classical Mythology. one of a race of creatures having the head, trunk, and arms of a man, and the body and legs of a horse.

  2. Cen·taur, Astronomy. the constellation Centaurus.

  1. a skillful horseman or horsewoman.

  2. Cen·taur, Rocketry. a U.S. upper stage, with a restartable liquid-propellant engine, used with an Atlas or Titan booster to launch satellites and probes.

Origin of centaur

1
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English, Old English, from Latin centaurus, from Greek kéntauros

Other words from centaur

  • cen·tau·ri·al [sen-tawr-ee-uhl], /ˌsɛnˈtɔr i əl/, cen·tau·ri·an, cen·tau·ric, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use centaur in a sentence

  • I was fairly well-heeled, having just finished guiding a couple of Centaurian tourists through the ruins of K'nar.

    Noble Redman | Jesse Franklin Bone
  • He was led from one underground lab to another, to compare Centaurian developments with Solarian.

    Irresistible Weapon | Horace Brown Fyfe
  • I can remember with pride the engravings of the first proud Earth ships that blasted off for the Centaurian system aeons ago.

    Earthsmith | Milton Lesser
  • And other pictures of the early days of the new Centaurian culture, and still others.

    Earthsmith | Milton Lesser
  • In one mighty effort he flung his ax at the Centaurian in front of him.

British Dictionary definitions for centaur

centaur

/ (ˈsɛntɔː) /


noun
  1. Greek myth one of a race of creatures with the head, arms, and torso of a man, and the lower body and legs of a horse

Origin of centaur

1
C14: from Latin, from Greek kentauros, of unknown origin

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for Centaur

Centaur

[ sĕntôr′ ]


  1. Any of a group of icy bodies similar to both asteroids and comets, orbiting the Sun in elliptical paths mostly in the region between Saturn and Neptune. Centaurs range in diameter from around 100 to 400 km (62 to 248 mi) and are believed to be Kuiper belt objects that have escaped into the vicinity of the gas-giant planets. Centaurs are considered to have unstable orbits, and gravitational encounters with the large outer planets could send them into the inner solar system or alternatively could eject them from the solar system into interstellar space. Chiron, the first such body to be classified as a Centaur, was discovered in 1977.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.