Great Bear
- proper noun
:
Gran Oso
- In clear skies, you can see the distinct shape of the Great Bear constellation shining brightly.
- Great Bear (Ursa Major)
- Great Bear (Ursa Major)
Examples
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Navigators often use the Great Bear to find their way during night-time journeys.
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The dim white pinpoint sped ten degrees across the mystery of stars called Berenice's Hair and intruded upon the starkly bright dipper of the Great Bear.
Fiction book (1990) -
The Great Bear, of course, and the little one, too, Ursa Minor, which shines brighter here than anywhere.
Fiction book (1995) -
Accordingly, the magical number seven is prominent in all the rites, a reminder of the seven major stars in the constellation of the Great Bear (Ursa Major) in the heavens.
Academic text (1993) -
Many ancient cultures looked to the Great Bear as a symbol of strength in their stories.
Synonyms
1
7.3
A group of stars in the northern sky that look like a big bear
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally composes as 'great' + 'bear' (i.e., a large bear), so a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words will most likely interpret it literally rather than as an astronomical name. Although many languages use a similar name for Ursa Major (e.g., Osa Mayor, Grande Ourse), recognizing it as the constellation requires cultural/astronomical knowledge rather than pure compositional inference, so the relation is partial but not fully transparent.
Etymology
Great Bear comes from a picture people long ago saw in the stars: they thought the star group looked like a big bear. That's why Great Bear today means the northern constellation 'Ursa Major' and includes the Big Dipper.