parsec

See also: Parsec and pársec

English

Etymology

Contraction of parallax second.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑɹ.sɛk/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑː.sɛk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

parsec (plural parsecs)

1. (astronomy, metrology) Short for parallax second.

   Synonyms: pc, (obsolete) psc, second of parallax

   • 1977, Star Wars, spoken by Han Solo and Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi (Harrison Ford and Alec Guinness), →OCLC:

     Han Solo: Fast ship? You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon?
     Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi: Should I have?
     Han Solo: It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. I've outrun Imperial starships. Not the local bulk cruisers mind you, I'm talking about the big Corellian ships now. She's fast enough for you old man.

Derived terms

Compound words

• microparsec
• kiloparsec
• megaparsec
• gigaparsec
• teraparsec
• petaparsec
• exaparsec
• zettaparsec
• yottaparsec
• ronnaparsec
• quettaparsec

 

other terms

• final parsec problem

 

Translations

parallax second

• Arabic: فرسخ m (farsakh), فرسخ فلكي m (farsakh falakiyy)
• Bulgarian: парсек m (parsek)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 秒差距 (zh) (miǎochājù)

• Czech: parsek m
• Dutch: parsec (nl)
• Esperanto: parseko
• French: parsec (fr) m
• Georgian: პარსეკი (ṗarseḳi)
• German: Parsec (de) n
• Hungarian: parszek (hu)
• Italian: parsec (it) m
• Japanese: パーセク (ja) (pāseku)
• Northwestern Ojibwa: aazhawigwaashkwani-anang
• Portuguese: parsec (pt) m
• Russian: парсе́к (ru) m (parsék)
• Spanish: parsec (es), pársec (es)
• Swedish: parsek c
• Thai: พาร์เซก
• Ukrainian: парсе́к m (parsék)

See also

• light year

Anagrams

• crapes, Casper, pacers, secpar, Pacers, recaps, escarp, scarpe, e-scrap, Cresap, spacer, Scaper, CASREP, scaper, scrape, capers, sparce

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English parsec, contraction of parallax second.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɑr.sɛk/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: par‧sec

Noun

parsec m (plural parsecs)

1. parsec

French

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

parsec m (plural parsecs)

1. parsec

Further reading

• “parsec”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English parsec.

Noun

parsec m (invariable)

1. parsec

Anagrams

• crespa, pascer, scarpe, scerpa, spreca

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English parsec.

Noun

parsec m (plural parsecs)

1. (astronomy) parsec (a unit of length, about 3.26 lightyears)

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French parsec.

Noun

parsec m (plural parseci)

1. parsec

Declension

Declension of parsec

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) parsec	parsecul	(niște) parseci	parsecii
genitive/dative	(unui) parsec	parsecului	(unor) parseci	parsecilor
vocative	parsecule		parsecilor

Spanish

Alternative forms

• pársec

Etymology

Borrowed from English parsec.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /paɾˈsek/ [paɾˈsek]
• Rhymes: -ek
• Syllabification: par‧sec

Noun

parsec m (plural parsecs)

1. parsec

Further reading

• “parsec”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), 23rd edition, Royal Spanish Academy, 2014 October 16