centaur

[ sen-tawr ]

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.
3. a skillful horseman or horsewoman.
4. 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.

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

Centaur

/ sĕn′tôr′ /

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.

Other Words From

• cen·tau·ri·al [sen-, tawr, -ee-, uh, l], cen·tau·ri·an cen·tau·ric adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of centaur¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of centaur¹

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

Example Sentences

She also introduced him to telenovelas and their “hot dudes who looked like centaurs.”

From Los Angeles Times

For reasons that have yet to be explained, parts of the centaur head are coated with a thin brown film, as are several other marble fragments from the Parthenon.

From Science Daily

In another hall, art students sketched a sculpture of a centaur from the Parthenon Marbles.

From New York Times

Sagittarius is generally depicted as the Archer, a centaur holding a bow.

From Scientific American

Mythical hybrid beasts such as mermaids, centaurs and chimeras testify to our enduring fascination with the plasticity of biological form: the idea that natural organisms can mutate or be reconfigured.

From Scientific American

Related Words

• behemoth
• freak
• giant
• whale