Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🌌 A star group 🦅 A genus of eagles
Aquila

Aquila

8 9.4
A group of stars in the shape of an eagle that includes the bright star Altair
  • proper noun
  • /ˈækwɪlə/
  • Specialized
translation icon : Aquila
  • To complete the Summer Triangle, we must look to Aquila, the constellation that features the bright star Altair.
  • Aquila the Eagle

Examples

  • PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): A portion of the Southern Milky Way from the constellation Aquila (far left, this page) through Monoceros (far right, facing page).

    Academic text (1991)

  • In one of those newspaper essays of 1893, Mary Proctor, legatee of the once-renowned Richard A. Proctor, told of observing over several weeks a bright star in the constellation Aquila, "from the front porch of my home on North Sixth Street" in St. Joseph.

    Academic text (1999)

  • To complete the Summer Triangle, we must look to Aquila the Eagle.

    The Longest Swim (2014)

  • There's Aquila the eagle.

    The Life of Chuck (2025)

  • The constellation Aquila is easily recognizable, especially during summer nights.

  • When stargazing, be sure to identify Aquila, which is located near the constellation Cygnus.

Compounds

Aquila chrysaetos
  • Specialized
9.8

A large eagle that lives in mountains and has a golden brown head

Aquila rapax
  • Specialized
9.9

A medium-sized brown eagle that lives in Africa and parts of Asia, also called the tawny eagle

Sciaena aquila
  • Specialized
9.9

A large sea fish found near Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts eaten as food

Surface Forms

Aquila main

Etymology

Aquila comes from the Latin aquila, which means 'eagle'. Ancient people named a pattern of stars after an eagle because they saw an eagle shape, so the constellation Aquila is the 'eagle' in the sky.