asterism

asterism is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 2 senses. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.(Printing) (a) An asterisk, or mark of reference. [R.] (b) Three asterisks placed in this manner, *, to direct attention to a particular passage.
  2. 2.(Crystallog.) An optical property of some crystals which exhibit a star- shaped by reflected light, as star sapphire, or by transmitted light, as some mica.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Related questions

Reverse-dictionary questions

Definition-first questions whose answer is asterism.

Sources