Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

NGC

American  
Astronomy.

  1. New General Catalogue: a catalog of clusters, nebulae, and galaxies compiled by Danish astronomer Johan Ludwig Dreyer (1852–1926) and published in 1888.

NGC British  

abbreviation

  1. New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars; a catalogue in which over 8000 nebulae, galaxies, and clusters are listed numerically

"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

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The researchers examined around 20,000 simulated galaxies and identified one that closely matched NGC 1365.

From Science Daily • Mar. 23, 2026

They focused on NGC 1365, a nearby spiral galaxy whose broad disk faces Earth, offering a clear view.

From Science Daily • Mar. 23, 2026

The detailed study of M31-2014-DS1 also helped researchers revisit a similar object, NGC 6946-BH1, which had been identified a decade earlier.

From Science Daily • Feb. 14, 2026

The event’s light traveled from the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 1637, located about 40 million light-years from Earth.

From Science Daily • Oct. 9, 2025

Black holes ranging from millions to billions of times more massive than the Sun are suspected in the cores of giant elliptical galaxies such as NGC 6251 and M87.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.