noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
/ˌsuː.pə(ɹ)ˈnəʊ.və/
General-American:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
rhymes with -əʊvə
CMU ARPABET:S UW2 P ER0 N OW1 V AH0
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 1
A powerful and bright explosion of a massive star, which afterwards becomes a neutron star or a black hole, or is destroyed.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: astronomy, natural-sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
Something brilliant.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: figuratively
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
a star that explodes and becomes extremely luminous in the process
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: star
Narrower terms: Crab Nebula
History
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *úp Proto-Indo-European *-er Proto-Indo-European *upér Proto-Italic *super Latin super Latin super-lbor. English super- English nova English supernova From super- + nova.
Across languages
Translations
59 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Afrikaans:
supernova
— exploding star
Albanian:
supernovë
— exploding star
Arabic:
مُسْتَعِر أَعْظَم
(mustaʕir ʔaʕẓam)
— exploding star
Basque:
supernoba
— exploding star
Belarusian:
звышно́вая
(zvyšnóvaja)
— exploding star
Bulgarian:
свръхно́ва
(svrǎhnóva)
— exploding star
Catalan:
supernova
— exploding star
Chinese Mandarin:
超新星
(chāoxīnxīng)
— exploding star
Czech:
supernova
— exploding star
Danish:
supernova
— exploding star
Dutch:
supernova
— exploding star
Esperanto:
supernovao
— exploding star
Estonian:
supernoova
— exploding star
Finnish:
supernova
— exploding star
French:
supernova
— exploding star
Georgian:
ზეახალი ვარსკვლავი
(zeaxali varsḳvlavi)
— exploding star
German:
Supernova
— exploding star
Greek:
υπερκαινοφανής
(yperkainofanís)
— exploding star
Hebrew:
סוּפֶּרְנוֹבָה
(supernova)
— exploding star
Hindi:
अधिनवतारा
(adhinavtārā)
— exploding star
Hungarian:
szupernóva
— exploding star
Icelandic:
sprengistjarna
— exploding star
Indonesian:
supernova
— exploding star
Irish:
ollnóva
— exploding star
Italian:
supernova
— exploding star
Japanese:
超新星
(chōshinsei)
— exploding star
Kazakh:
ғаламатжұлдыз
(ğalamatjūldyz)
— exploding star
Korean:
초신성
(chosinseong)
— exploding star
Latvian:
pārnova
— exploding star
Latvian:
supernova
— exploding star
Lithuanian:
supernova
— exploding star
Macedonian:
супернова
(supernova)
— exploding star
Malay:
supernova
— exploding star
Maltese:
supernova
— exploding star
Māori:
whetū ahoaho
— exploding star
Mongolian:
нэн шинэ од
(nen šine od)
— exploding star
Norman:
supèrnova
— exploding star
Norwegian Bokmål:
supernova
— exploding star
Norwegian Nynorsk:
supernova
— exploding star
Persian:
ابرنواختر
(abar-now-axtar)
— exploding star
Polish:
supernowa
— exploding star
Portuguese:
supernova
— exploding star
Romanian:
supernovă
— exploding star
Russian:
сверхно́вая звезда́
(sverxnóvaja zvezdá)
— exploding star
Russian:
сверхно́вая
(sverxnóvaja)
— exploding star
Russian:
суперно́ва
(supernóva)
— exploding star
Serbo-Croatian:
супернова
— exploding star
Serbo-Croatian:
supernova
— exploding star
Slovak:
supernova
— exploding star
Slovene:
supernova
— exploding star
Spanish:
supernova
— exploding star
Swedish:
supernova
— exploding star
Thai:
มหานวดารา
— exploding star
Thai:
ซูเปอร์โนวา
— exploding star
Turkish:
süpernova
— exploding star
Ukrainian:
наднова́ зі́рка
(nadnová zírka)
— exploding star
