Mira
English · Español · Français · Deutsch · Italiano · Português · Română · Thesaurus
AI In plain words
Writing a short explanation…
Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
Mira¹
Where it comes from
Named by the astronomer Johannes Hevelius in 1662, from Latin mīrus (“wonderful, surprising”).
proper noun
-
A binary star in the constellation Cetus, Omicron (ο) Ceti. The system contains a variable red giant and a white dwarf. Its brightness varies from a magnitude 2 at its brightest to a magnitude 10 at its dimmest.
The favoured explanation, adopted by Maraldi, was based on the assumption that the star was rotating and composed of two different parts, a bright and a dark region; if so, it might only be visible when the bright region turned towards Earth. Whatever the explanation, Mira had puzzled the astronomer
Similar: Omicron Ceti
Mira²
Where it comes from
* Borrowed from Hindi मीरा (mīrā), name of a 16th century Indian poetess, also affectionately called Mirabai.
* As occasionally borne by anglophones in the West, the name may also be borrowed from Slavic, or be a short form of Miranda.
proper noun
- Mirabai, a 16th-century Indian poetess.
- A female given name from India. Dorothy's daughters were of exceptional beauty and the sisters could complain only that the Hindi names Dorothy had chosen - Mira, Leela, Lena - were meant to pass as Western ones.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: watch, aim, target, sight, look, view, chota, seek, see, pursuit, fyrom, arim, meira, mera, cetus, canis minor
Translations
Talk about this word "Mira." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/mira. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. Mira. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/mira "Mira." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/mira.Cite this
@misc{mira_2026,
title = {Mira},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/mira},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
