noun
A gazelle found in the Middle East and North Africa.
Genus Gazella, family Bovidae: the mountain gazelle (G. gazella) or the dorcas gazelle (G. dorcas)
‘Within the desert reside the light-brown, familiar gazelle known as the Dorcas, or Ariel Gazelle.’- ‘The dorcas or ariel gazelle is less than 60 centimetres tall.’
- ‘We halted at Soojalup for the night: here for the first time I saw the beautiful antelope known by the Arabs as the Ariel (Gazelle Dama).’
Pronunciation
Origin
Mid 19th century from Arabic ‘aryal.
proper noun
1Astronomy
A satellite of Uranus discovered in 1851, the twelfth closest to the planet and the fourth largest, with a diameter of 721 miles (1,160 km).2A series of six American and British satellites devoted to studies of the ionosphere and X-ray astronomy (1962–79).
Pronunciation
Origin
The name of a fairy in Shakespeare's The Tempest.
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