# orb
## English
### Pronunciation

* (General American) IPA: /ɔɹb/
* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ɔːb/
* Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)b
* Audio (Southern England):(file)

### Etymology 1

From Middle English orbe, from Old French orbe, from Latin orbis (“circle, orb”). Compare orbit.

#### Noun

orb (plural orbs)
* A spherical body; a sphere, especially one of the celestial spheres; a sun, planet, or star
** c. 1607–1608, William Shakeſpeare, The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: Imprinted at London for Henry Goſſon, […], published 1609, →OCLC,:In the small orb of one particular tear.
** 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:Whether the prime orb, Incredible how swift, had thither rolled.
* Celestial sphere; one of the azure transparent spheres conceived by the ancients to be enclosed one within another, and to carry the heavenly bodies in their revolutions
* (architecture) A structural motif or finial in the shape of a sphere
* An orbit of an heavenly body
** 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Superstition”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:The schoolmen were like astronomers, which did feign eccentrics, and epicycles, and such engines of orbs.
** 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:You seem to me as Dian in her orb.
** 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:In orbs / Of circuit inexpressible they stood, / Orb within orb.
* (rare) The time period of an orbit
** 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book V:Know none before us, self-begot, self-rais'd / By our own quick'ning power, when fatal course / Had circl'd his full Orbe, the birth mature / Of this our native Heav'n, Ethereal Sons.
* (poetic) The eye, seen as a luminous and spherical entity
** 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:A drop serene hath quenched their orbs.
** 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Assignation”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 260:Painfully, he forced his hot eyelids to unclose, and his distended orbs sought for some object whereon to fix; they met the patch of grass, yet red with the blood of Walter Maynard.
* (poetic) Any revolving circular body, such as a wheel
** 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:The orbs Of his fierce chariot rolled.
* (rare) A sphere of action.
** 1815, William Wordsworth, Essay, Supplementary to the Preface:By what fatality the orb of my genius […] acts upon these men like the moon upon a certain description of patients, it would be irksome to inquire
** c. 1607–1608, William Shakeſpeare, The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: Imprinted at London for Henry Goſſon, […], published 1609, →OCLC,:But in our orbs we'll live so round and safe.
* A globus cruciger; a ceremonial sphere used to represent royal or imperial power
* A translucent sphere appearing in flash photography (Orb (optics))
* (military) A body of soldiers drawn up in a circle, as for defence, especially infantry to repel cavalry.
* (Can we verify this sense?) (astrology) Amount of deviation from the closest perfect aspect.

##### Synonyms

* (spherical body): ball, globe, sphere
* (circle): circle, orbit
* (a period of time): See Thesaurus:year
* (an eye): See Thesaurus:eye
* (revolving circular body): roller, wheel
* (sphere of action): area, domain, field, province
* (monarch's ceremonial sphere): globe, globus cruciger, mound, orb
* (military formation): globe

##### Derived terms

* golden silk orb-weaver
* orb spider
* orb-web spider
* red-legged golden orb-weaver spider
* sea orb
* semi-orb

##### Translations
#### Verb

orb (third-person singular simple present orbs, present participle orbing, simple past and past participle orbed)
* (poetic, transitive) To form into an orb or circle.
** 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:Let each His adamantine coat gird well, and each Fit well his helm, gripe fast his orbed shield
** 1842, James Russell Lowell, sonnet:a full-orbed sun
** 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXIV, page 41:And is it that the haze of grief ⁠Hath stretch’d my former joy so great? […] Or that the past will always win ⁠A glory from its being far; ⁠And orb into the perfect star We saw not, when we moved therein?
* (poetic, intransitive) To become round like an orb.
* (poetic, transitive) To encircle; to surround; to enclose.
** 1717, Joseph Addison, Metamorphoses:The wheels were orbed with gold.

### Etymology 2

From Old French orb (“blind”), from Latin orbus (“destitute”).

#### Noun

orb (plural orbs)
* (architecture) A blank window or panel.
** 1845, Robert Willis, The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral:small blank windows or panels, for in later times such panels were called orbs, blind windows

### References

* “orb”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* BOR, Bor, Bor., ROB, Rob, bor, bro, bro., rob

## Aromanian
### Alternative forms

* orbu

### Etymology

From Latin orbus. Compare Romanian orb.

### Adjective

orb m (feminine singular orbe, masculine plural orghi, feminine plural orbi)
* blind
* (figurative) ignorant
* (figurative) uncultivated, unrefined, uncivilized

#### Related terms

* urbari
* urbiatse

#### See also

* chior

## Catalan
### Etymology

Inherited from Old Catalan orb (also spelled horp), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos (“orphan”). Compare Occitan òrb, Italian orbo, Romanian orb.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic) [ˈɔrp]
* IPA: (Valencia) [ˈɔɾp]

### Adjective

orb (feminine orba, masculine plural orbs, feminine plural orbes)
* blind
    Synonym: cec

### Noun

orb m (uncountable)
* a fungal disease of wheat and other cereals

### References

* “orb” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
* “orb”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
* “orb” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
* “orb” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

## Estonian
### Etymology

Borrowed from Finnish orpo, from Proto-Finnic *orpoi, from Proto-Finno-Ugric *orpa, borrowed from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Hárbʰas. Cognate with Hungarian árva.
* PIE word
* *h₃órbʰos

### Noun

orb (genitive orvu, partitive orbu)
* orphan

#### Declension
### Further reading

* “orb”, in [EKSS] Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat [Descriptive Dictionary of the Estonian Language] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2009
* “orb”, in [ÕS] Eesti õigekeelsussõnaraamat ÕS 2018 [Estonian Spelling Dictionary] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2018, →ISBN
* orb in Sõnaveeb (Eesti Keele Instituut)

## Romanian
### Etymology

Inherited from Latin orbus, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos (“orphan”). Compare Italian orbo. Doublet of rob.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /orb/
* Audio:(file)
* Audio:(file)

### Adjective

orb m or n (feminine singular oarbă, masculine plural orbi, feminine and neuter plural oarbe)
* blind

#### Declension
### Noun

orb m (plural orbi, feminine equivalent oarbă)
* blind man

#### Derived terms

* orbeț
* orbi

#### Related terms

* orbecăi

#### See also

* chior
* mut
* surd
* vedea