corona

noun24

1. •
   Any luminous or crownlike ring around an object or person.

   • It looked like a miniaturized version of Hiroshima. Fires burned here and there. […] His once and future presidential palace was a crater ringed by a corona of flaming debris. — 1980
2. •
   [before a noun] (informal) A disease caused by a coronavirus, especially COVID-19.

   • She caught corona last week.
3. •
   [before a noun] (informal) A coronavirus, especially SARS-CoV-2.

   • The recent surge of deaths due to corona reveals the shortcomings of our current healthcare system.
4. •
   The luminous plasma atmosphere of the Sun (the solar corona) or other star, extending millions of kilometres into space, most easily seen during a total solar eclipse.
5. •
   A luminous appearance caused by corona discharge, often seen as a bluish glow in the air adjacent to pointed metal conductors carrying high voltages.
6. •
   A circle or set of circles visible around a bright celestial object, especially the Sun or the Moon, attributable to an optical phenomenon produced by the diffraction of its light by small water droplets or tiny ice crystals.

   • The increasing light eventually erases the moon's glowing corona, her pendant chandelier of light pales into insignificance as the new day breaks. — 2013
7. •
   A mineral zone, consisting of one or more minerals, which surrounds another mineral or lies at the interface of two minerals, typically in a radial arrangement; a reaction rim.

   • Green hornblende is abundant at the rims of chlorite coronas in contact with amphibole-filled cracks, whereas it is minor (but not absent) in coronas in contact with chlorite-filled cracks. — 2017
8. •
   An upper or crownlike portion of certain parts of the body.
9. •
   A region of the skull located along the coronal suture, at the junction between the frontal bone and the two parietal bones.
10. •
    The external (supragingival) portion of the tooth, covered by enamel; the crown.
11. •
    The circumference of the base of the glans penis in human males.

    • The first line of injection with a clean 1% solution of cocain, or 2% eucain is began, posterior to the ridge caused by the corona, on the dorsum. — 1907
12. •
    Any appendage of an organism that resembles a crown or corona.
13. •
    A ring or set of appendages of adaxial tissue arising from the corolla or the outer edge of the stamens, present in some plants (Narcissus, Passiflora, etc.); a paraperigonium or paracorolla.

    • Pentándria, Digynia. All as in Stapèlia; but the corolla is tuberculate, and the branches of the plant warted; and the outer corona of the corolla lacerately multifid. — 1838
14. •
    An annular ciliated organ on the head of rotifers, used for locomotion and sweeping food into the mouth.
15. •
    The main body of the test of an echinoid, consisting of ambulacral and interambulacral areas.
16. •
    The crown of a crinoid, consisting of a cuplike central body (theca) and a set of arms.
17. •
    A fringe of large, bulbous surface projections on coronaviruses, formed by viral spike peplomers, creating an appearance reminiscent of the solar corona.

    • Coronaviruses are medium-sized, enveloped, ribonucleic acid viruses which, in negatively stained preparations, appear round and bear a corona of irregular, petal-shaped surface projections. — 1972
18. •
    A long, straight-sided cigar with a blunt, rounded end.
19. •
    The large, flat, projecting member of a cornice which crowns the entablature, situated above the bed moulding and below the cymatium.

    • Though somewhat verbose, the author is specific in his instruction that the S-shaped crown molding, the cymarecta, caps the top of the pediment and is not returned on the horizontal corona. — 2018
20. •
    (historical) A crown or garland bestowed among the Romans as a reward for distinguished services.

    • From the remark of Servius [i.e., Maurus Servius Honoratus] (ad Aen. v. 269) it appears that coronae adorned with lemnisci were a greater distinction than those without them. — 1842
21. •
    A series of sonnets linked together such that the last word of each is the first word of the next.

    • [Lady Mary] Wroth alludes to these contexts as the corona of sonnets that crowns the sequence opens: "In this strang labourinth how shall I turne?" (Wroth, Poems 127). — 2000
22. •
    An oval-shaped astrogeological feature, present on both the planet Venus and Uranus's moon Miranda, probably formed by upwellings of warm material below the surface.

    • The area density of impact craters on the surfaces of the coronas suggests that the episode of tidal heating occurred approximately one billion years ago[…]. — 2007
23. •
    A large, round, pendent chandelier, with spikes around its upper rim to hold candles or lamps, usually hung from the roof of a church.

    • The magnificent bronze corona, or luminaria, which still hangs in the central octagon, shews the skill of the workmen in bronze of that period. — 1865
24. •
    A manifestation of secondary syphilis, consisting of papular lesions along the hairline, often bordering the scalp in the manner of a crown.

verb1

1. •
   (rare) To surround with a luminous or crownlike ring like the solar corona.

   • He was surrounded, encauled, coronaed with whispering figures. They fleeted in and out of visibility, made of dark light. They entered his body and exited it, they faded up, they ebbed out. — 2010

noun1

1. •
   A pale lager beer produced by Mexican brewery Grupo Modelo, commonly served with a wedge of lime or lemon in the neck of the bottle.

   • He ordered two Coronas at the bar.