Everyday LifeGreek → English
Galaxy
/ˈɡæləksi/
A vast system of stars bound by gravity.
The Greek roots
γάλα
gála
milk
Literally: “the milky circle”
Follow a root:γάλα1 word
The story of the word
The pale band of the Milky Way looked to the Greeks like spilled milk across the sky — galaxías kýklos, 'the milky circle'.
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
In a sentence
Our galaxy holds hundreds of billions of stars.