Ptolemy

[ tol-uh-mee ]

noun,plural Ptol·e·mies for 2.
  1. Claudius Ptolemaeus, flourished a.d. 127–151, Hellenistic mathematician, astronomer, and geographer in Alexandria.

  2. any of the kings of the Macedonian dynasty that ruled Egypt 323–30 b.c.

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British Dictionary definitions for Ptolemy

Ptolemy

/ (ˈtɒlɪmɪ) /


noun
  1. Latin name Claudius Ptolemaeus. 2nd century ad, Greek astronomer, mathematician, and geographer. His Geography was the standard geographical textbook until the discoveries of the 15th century. His system of astronomy (see Ptolemaic system), as expounded in the Almagest, remained undisputed until the Copernican system was evolved

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 Ptolemy

Ptolemy

[ tŏlə-mē ]


See Note at Copernicus.
  1. Greek astronomer and mathematician who based his astronomy on the belief that all heavenly bodies revolved around Earth. Ptolemy's model of the solar system endured until the 16th century when Nicolaus Copernicus proposed that the heavenly bodies in the solar system orbited the Sun.

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

Cultural definitions for Ptolemy (1 of 2)

Ptolemy

[ (tol-uh-mee) ]


An ancient Greek astronomer, living in Egypt (see also Egypt), who proposed a way of calculating the movements of the planets on the assumption that they, along with the sun and the stars, were embedded in clear spheres that revolved around the Earth. The system of Ptolemy, called the Ptolemaic universe, prevailed in astronomy for nearly fifteen hundred years, until the modern model of the solar system, with the sun at the center and the planets in motion, was developed from the ideas of Copernicus.

Ptolemy

[ (tol-uh-mee) ]


An ancient Greek astronomer, living in Egypt (see also Egypt), who proposed a way of calculating the movements of the planets on the assumption that they, along with the sun and the stars, revolved around the Earth. (See Ptolemaic universe.)

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.