Firmament

Definition: Firmament

Firmament

Noun

1. The apparent surface of the imaginary sphere on which celestial bodies appear to be projected.

Date "firmament" was first used: sometime around 1250. (references)

Etymology: Firmament \Fir"ma*ment\, noun. [Latin expression firmamentum, from firmare to make firm: compare to the French expression firmament. See Firm, v.]. (Websters 1913)

Domain	Definitions
Bible	Firmament from the Vulgate firmamentum, which is used as the translation of the Hebrew _raki'a_. This word means simply "expansion." It denotes the space or expanse like an arch appearing immediately above us. They who rendered _raki'a_ by firmamentum regarded it as a solid body. The language of Scripture is not scientific but popular, and hence we read of the sun rising and setting, and also here the use of this particular word. It is plain that it was used to denote solidity as well as expansion. It formed a division between the waters above and the waters below (Gen. 1:7). The _raki'a_ supported the upper reservoir (Ps. 148:4). It was the support also of the heavenly bodies (Gen. 1:14), and is spoken of as having "windows" and "doors" (Gen. 7:11; Isa. 24:18; Mal. 3:10) through which the rain and snow might descend. Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary.
	To see the firmament illuminated and filled with the heavenly hosts, denotes great spiritual research, but a final pulling back on Nature for sustenance and consolation. You will often be disappointed in fortune also. To see people you know in the firmament, signifies that they are about to commit some unwise act through you, and others must be the innocent sufferers. Great disasters usually follow this dream. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted ....
Space	The celestial sphere and the collection of stars whose position is fixed on it. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms: Firmament

Synonyms: celestial sphere (n), empyrean (n), heavens (n), sphere (n), vault of heaven (n), welkin (n). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Multitude	Thick coming, many more, more than one can tell, a world of; no end of, no end to; cum multis aliis; thick as hops, thick as hail; plenty as blackberries; numerous as the stars in the firmament, numerous as the sands on the seashore, numerous as the hairs on the head; and what not, and heaven knows what; endless; (infinite).
World	Heavens, sky, welkin, empyrean; starry cope, starry heaven, starry host; firmament; Midgard; supersensible regions; varuna; vault of heaven, canopy of heaven; celestial spaces.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Firmament

English words defined with "firmament": firmamental ♦ mirror ♦ Supercelestial ♦ With. (references)

Specialty definitions using "firmament": Create. Make ♦ Dog-star ♦ Firmament, firmament stone ♦ Nine Spheres ♦ Satan's Journey to Earth. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Firmament" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses.

French (firmament), German (firmament, heavens), Romanian (firmament, heaven, sky), Swedish (firmament).

Domain	Usage
Movie/TV Titles	Drohende Wolken am Firmament (1918)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	El firmament a l'estiu (reference) Firmament : [Ausstellung vom 27. September bis zum 1. Dezember 1991 in der Hamburger Kunsthalle] (reference) Les toqués du firmament : chronique romancée (reference) The Firmament of Time (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Wolfgang Rihm: Sine Nomine/Kein Firmament (reference) Firmament Fury (reference) Firmament II [IMPORT] (reference) Firmament III & IV (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Quotation
Daniel Webster	Knowledge, in truth, is the great sun in the firmament. Life and power are scattered with all its beams.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	At the moment you least expect it, God placards a meteor on the wall of the firmament.
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man	Joyce, James	The firmament was as a scroll rolled away.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Firmament" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Firmament" is used about 45 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	100%	45	50,900

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "firmament"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		qiell (blue, empyrean, heaven, sky, welkin), kupë qiellore (concave, dome, heaven, hemisphere, vault). (various references)

Arabic		‏قبة الزرقاء, ‏السماء (blue, canopy, empyrean, sky, vault). (various references)

Bulgarian		небесната твърд (empyrean). (various references)

Chinese		霄 (heaven, to copy, to hit, to record), �'�天 . (various references)

Czech		obloha (blue, garnish, heavens, sky). (various references)

Finnish		taivaankansi. (various references)

French		firmament. (various references)

German		Himmelszelt. (various references)

Greek		ουράνιοσ θόλοσ (celestial concave). (various references)

Hebrew		שמים (heaven, sky), רקיע (canopy, expanse, heaven, sky). (various references)

Hungarian		megerõsítés (affirmation, confirmation, consolidation, corroboration, fortification, ratification, reinforce, reinforcement), égbolt (azure, canopy of heaven, cope of heaven, heaven, sky, vault). (various references)

Indonesian		cakrawala (heavens, horizon, sky). (various references)

Italian		casa (dormitory, establishment, family, firm, flat, home, house, houseboat, household, labelable, place). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		天空 (air, ether, sky), 大空 (heaven, the sky), 一天 (the whole sky). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		おおぞら (heaven, the sky), いって�" (a turn, complete change, dot, only a little, only one, particle, point, speck, the whole sky), て�"くう (air, ether, sky). (various references)

Pig Latin		irmamentfay

Portuguese		fixar (affix, allocate, append, appoint, assign, clench, cling to, define, determine, engraver, fasten, fix, get caught on, impair, joggle, Lodge, make fast, nail, pin, pitch, plant, put, record, rivet, root, secure, steady, tie), firmamento (azure, cope of heaven, domed, heaven, sky, sphere, welkin). (various references)

Romanian		firmament (heaven, sky), cer (air, atmosphere, clime, heaven, high, paradise, skies, sky). (various references)

Russian		небесный свод (canopy of heaven, concave, cope of heaven, dome of heaven). (various references)

Scottish		speur (heaven, the heaven, the sky). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		nebeski svod (cope: the cope of heaven, heaven, welkin). (various references)

Spanish		firmamento. (various references)

Swedish		firmament, fäste (anchorage, attachment, bracket, cantilevered beam, corbel, fastener, fastness, hilt, hold, insertion, purchase, receptacle, root, shaft, stronghold), himmel (gee, good heavens, goodness gracious, gracious me, heaven, man, my hat, sky), himlavalv (canopy, heavens). (various references)

Turkish		sema (heaven, sky, welkin), gök kubbe (canopy of heaven, the blue vault, vault of heaven, welkin), gök (celestial, heaven, sky, the blue). (various references)

Ukranian		твердінь небесна. (various references)

Vietnamese		bầu trời. (various references)

Welsh		ffurfafen (sky), nwyfre (sky), entrych (height, zenith). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	firmamentum. (various references)
Avestan	200-600	thwâshahe. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Language	Date	Source	Genesis Chapter 1, Verse 17
Greek (transliterated)	250 BC	Septuagint	Kai eqeto autouV o qeoV en tw sterewmati tou ouranou wste fainein epi thV ghV
Latin	405	Vulgate	Et posuit eas in firmamento caeli ut lucerent super terram
Old English	990	West Saxon	Ond gesette hi on ðære heofenan, ðæt hi scinon ofer eorðan,
Middle English	1395	Wyclif	And he putte hem in the firmament of heuene, that thei shulden yyue liyt vpon the erthe,
Renaissance English	1526	Tyndale	And God put them in the fyrmament of heaven to shyne vpon the erth
Jacobean English	1611	King James	And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
Victorian English	1833	Webster	And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth.
Basic English	1964	Ogden	And God put them in the arch of heaven, to give light on the earth;
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Language	Genesis Chapter 1, Verse 17
Cebuano	Ug gibutang sila sa Dios sa hawan sa langit, aron magaiwag sa ibabaw sa yuta,
Chinese	就把這些光 �"� 列在天空、普照在地上、
Croatian	I Bog ih postavi na svod nebeski da rasvjetljuju zemlju,
Danish	og Gud satte dem på Himmelhvælvingen til at lyse på Jorden
Dutch	En God stelde ze in het uitspansel des hemels, om licht te geven op de aarde.
Finnish	Ja Jumala pani ne taivaanvahvuuteen, paistamaan maan päälle
French	Dieu les plaça dans l`étendue du ciel, pour éclairer la terre,
German	Und Gott setzte sie an die Feste des Himmels, daß sie schienen auf die Erde
Haitian Creole	Li mete yo nan syèl la pou klere latè a,
Hungarian	És helyezteté Isten azokat az ég mennyezetére, hogy világítsanak a földre;
Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari	Allah menempatkan benda-benda terang itu di langit untuk menerangi bumi,
Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama	Maka ditaruh Allah akan dia dalam bentangan langit akan memberi terang di atas bumi,
Italian	Dio le pose nel firmamento del cielo per illuminare la terra
Maori	A whakanohoia ana aua mea e te Atua ki te kiko o te rangi, hei whakamarama mo te whenua,
Norwegian	Og Gud satte dem på himmelhvelvingen til å lyse over jorden
Portuguese	E Deus os pôs no firmamento do céu para alumiar a terra,
Rumanian	Dumnezeu i -a awezat kn kntinderea cerului, ca sq lumineze pqmkntul,
Swedish	Och Gud satte dem på himmelens fäste till att lysa över jorden,
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "firmament": firmamental, firmaments. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Firmament" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: farmament, fermament, firament, firmamant, firmamentum, firmanent, forminant. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Words rhyming with "firmament" (pronounced 'Fir"ma*ment'): Abandonment, Abasement, Abashment, Abatement, Abetment, Abiliment, Abjurement, Abodement, Abolishment, Aborsement, Abortment, Abridgment, Absentment, Abutment, Acclimatement, Accompaniment, Accomplishment, Accordment, Accouchement, Accouplement, Accroachment, Accrument, Accusement, Acharnement, Acknowledgment, Acquirement, Acquitment, Additament, Adjournment, Adjudgment, Adjument, Adjustment, Admonishment, Adorement, Adornment, Advancement, Advertisement, Advisement, Affamishment, Affeerment, Afforcement, Afforciament, Affordment, Affranchisement, Affrayment, Affreightment, Affrightment, Aggrandizement, Aggroupment, Agistment. (additional references)

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-e-f-i-m-m-n-r-t"
	-2 letters: fainter, fireman, marmite, minaret, raiment.
	-3 letters: airmen, ammine, etamin, fainer, famine, firman, imaret, immane, infare, inmate, maftir, maimer, marine, marten, martin, merman, minter, ratine, remain, remint, retain, retina, tamein, tammie.
	-4 letters: afire, afrit, after, aimer, ament, amine, anime, antre, armet, entia, faint, feint, feria, fermi, finer, frame, frena, inarm, inert, infer, infra, inter.
	Words containing the letters "a-e-f-i-m-m-n-r-t"
	+1 letter: firmaments.
	+2 letters: firmamental.
	+4 letters: microfilament.
	+5 letters: ferrimagnetism, ferromagnetism, microfilaments.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.