planetarium
planetarium Lexical Profile
planetarium Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A domed building or theater in which images of stars, planets, and constellations are projected onto the curved ceiling for educational or entertainment purposes.
"The elementary school class visited the local planetarium to learn about the summer constellations and the phases of the moon."
An optical projection device used to project images of celestial bodies onto a domed ceiling, or a mechanical model representing the solar system.
"The museum's new digital planetarium can simulate the night sky from any point on Earth at any date in history."
Word Nuance & Usage
Unlike an observatory, which uses telescopes to observe the actual night sky, a planetarium uses a specialized projector inside a domed theater to simulate the positions and movements of stars and planets.
• Rhymes for planetarium
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in Modern Latin in the early 18th century from 'planeta' (planet, from Ancient Greek 'planētēs' meaning 'wanderer') and the Latin suffix '-arium', originally denoting a mechanical model of the solar system before coming to mean a domed projection theater in the 1920s.