Venus

/ˈvinəs/

/ˈvinəs/

Other forms: Venuses

Venus is the second planet from the Sun in our solar system and our closest planetary neighbor. Ancient Romans named the planet Venus after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, as the planet is exceptionally dazzling in the night sky.

Venus is often called Earth's "sister planet" because it's similar in size and mass, but that's where the similarities end. It's a scorchingly hot planet, the hottest in our solar system, with no water and with a dense, acidic atmosphere that would instantly crush a human. Venus spins very slowly, taking 243 Earth days to rotate just one time. That Venusian day is longer than its year, as the planet travels around the Sun in just 225 Earth days.

Definitions of Venus

1. noun

   the second nearest planet to the sun; it is peculiar in that its rotation is slow and retrograde (in the opposite sense of the Earth and all other planets except Uranus); it is visible from Earth as an early `morning star' or an `evening star'
   “before it was known that they were the same object the evening star was called Venus and the morning star was called Lucifer”

   example of:

   inferior planet

   any of the planets whose orbit lies inside the earth's orbit

   terrestrial planet

   a planet having a compact rocky surface like the Earth's; the four innermost planets in the solar system
2. noun

   goddess of love; counterpart of Greek Aphrodite
   synonyms: Urania

   example of:

   Roman deity

   a deity worshipped by the ancient Romans
3. noun

   type genus of the family Veneridae: genus of edible clams with thick oval shells
   synonyms: genus Venus

   type of:

   mollusk genus

   a genus of mollusks