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TITAN
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The largest of the satellites of Saturn; has a hazy nitrogen atmosphere
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)
Instance hypernyms:
satellite (any celestial body orbiting around a planet or star)
Sense 2
Meaning:
(Greek mythology) any of the primordial giant gods who ruled the Earth until overthrown by Zeus; the Titans were offspring of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaea (Earth)
Classified under:
Instance hypernyms:
Greek deity (a deity worshipped by the ancient Greeks)
Domain category:
Greek mythology (the mythology of the ancient Greeks)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "Titan"):
Epimetheus ((Greek mythology) brother of Prometheus; despite Prometheus's warning against gifts from Zeus he accepted Pandora as his wife)
Instance hyponyms:
Cronus ((Greek mythology) the supreme god until Zeus dethroned him; son of Uranus and Gaea in ancient Greek mythology; identified with Roman Saturn)
Hyperion ((Greek mythology) a Titan who was the son of Gaea and Uranus and the father of Helios and Selene and Eos in ancient mythology)
Oceanus ((Greek mythology) god of the stream that flowed around the earth in ancient mythology)
Cocus; Crius ((Greek mythology) one of the Titans)
Iapetus ((Greek mythology) the Titan who was father of Atlas and Epimetheus and Prometheus in ancient mythology)
Atlas ((Greek mythology) a Titan who was forced by Zeus to bear the sky on his shoulders)
Prometheus ((Greek mythology) the Titan who stole fire from Olympus and gave it to mankind; Zeus punished him by chaining him to a rock where an eagle gnawed at his liver until Hercules rescued him)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A person of exceptional importance and reputation
Synonyms:
behemoth; colossus; giant; heavyweight; titan
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("titan" is a kind of...):
important person; influential person; personage (a person whose actions and opinions strongly influence the course of events)
Derivation:
titanic (of great force or power)
Context examples:
Williams worked with the JPL team to identify what geologic units on Titan could be determined using first the radar images and then to extrapolate those units to the non-radar-covered regions.
(The First Global Geologic Map of Titan Completed, NASA)
Titan is the only planetary body in our solar system other than Earth known to have stable liquid on its surface.
(New Models Suggest Titan Lakes Are Explosion Craters, NASA)
Came days of storm, days and nights of storm, when the ocean menaced us with its roaring whiteness, and the wind smote our struggling boat with a Titan’s buffets.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Researchers say the electrification of Titan’s sands could explain why dunes on the moon, some of which are more than 90 meters tall, form in the opposite direction of the prevailing winds.
('Electric Sands' Cover Titan, VOA News)
Despite the different materials, temperatures and gravity fields between Earth and Titan, many surface features are similar between the two worlds and can be interpreted as being products of the same geologic processes.
(The First Global Geologic Map of Titan Completed, NASA)
Over the last half-billion or billion years on Titan, methane in its atmosphere has acted as a greenhouse gas, keeping the moon relatively warm - although still cold by Earth standards.
(New Models Suggest Titan Lakes Are Explosion Craters, NASA)
“Any spacecraft that lands in regions of granular material on Titan is going to have a tough time staying clean. Think of putting a cat in a box of packing peanuts.”
('Electric Sands' Cover Titan, VOA News)
Specifically, they used data from Cassini's radar imager to penetrate Titan's opaque atmosphere of nitrogen and methane.
(The First Global Geologic Map of Titan Completed, NASA)
These lakes with steep edges, ramparts and raised rims would be a signpost of periods in Titan's history when there was liquid nitrogen on the surface and in the crust.
(New Models Suggest Titan Lakes Are Explosion Craters, NASA)
The charge is likely generated by the winds on Titan, which blow at around 30 kilometers per hour.
('Electric Sands' Cover Titan, VOA News)
