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Au·ro·ra 1 (ə-rôrə)
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n.
Roman Mythology
The goddess of the dawn.

[Latin Aurōra; see AURORA.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Au·ro·ra 2 (ə-rôrə)
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1. A city of north-central Colorado, a residential suburb of Denver.
2. A city of northeast Illinois on the Fox River west of Chicago. It developed as an industrial center.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
au·ro·ra (ə-rôrə)
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n.pl. au·ro·ras or au·ro·rae (ə-rôrē)
1. A luminous atmospheric phenomenon appearing as streamers or bands of light sometimes visible in the night sky in northern or southern regions of the earth. It is thought to be caused by charged particles from the sun entering the earth's magnetic field and stimulating molecules in the atmosphere.
2. The dawn.

[Middle English, dawn, from Latin aurōra; see aus- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]

au·roral, au·rore·an(-ē-ən)adj.
au·roral·lyadv.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.