white dwarf

noun

a faint star of enormous density

• Syn: ↑white dwarf star

• Hypernyms: ↑star

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noun

: a whitish star of high surface temperature and very low intrinsic brightness usually with a mass about comparable to that of the sun but of such small dimensions that its average density is enormous

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Astron.

a star, approximately the size of the earth, that has undergone gravitational collapse and is in the final stage of evolution for low-mass stars, beginning hot and white and ending cold and dark (black dwarf). Cf. Chandrasekhar limit.

[1920-25]

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White Dwarf noun

(also without caps) the name given to a class of small dim stars outside the normal spectral sequence, because their luminosities are extremely low for their spectral type, such stars being in the final stages of their evolution

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Main Entry: ↑white

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white dwarf UK US noun [countable] [singular white dwarf plural white dwarfs] astronomy

a star that does not shine very brightly and is at the end of its life

Thesaurus: planets, stars and other objects in space_hyponym space and the universe_synonym

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white dwarf,

Astronomy. a white star of low luminosity, small size, and very great density.

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n. Astronomy a small very dense star that is typically the size of a planet. A white dwarf is formed when a low-mass star has exhausted all its central nuclear fuel and lost its outer layers as a planetary nebula

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noun, pl ⋯ dwarfs [count]

astronomy : a star that is at the end of its life and is very hot, small, and dense

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ˌwhite ˈdwarf f20 [white dwarf] noun (astronomy)

a small star that is near the end of its life and is very ↑dense (= solid and heavy)