Definition of "polar" []

• Of or relating to a pole. (adjective)
• Measured from or referred to a pole: polar distance; polar diameter. (adjective)
• Relating to, connected with, or located near the North Pole or South Pole. (adjective)
• Passing over a planet's north and south poles: a polar orbit. (adjective)
• Traveling in an orbit that passes over a planet's north and south poles. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The term polar, when attached to winter gear, suggests that it will keep people warm in extreme cold, not that it's just adequate when the temperature drops near freezing."
• "The seven candlesticks of gold, which he calls the polar light of Heaven itself, because they perform the same office for Christians that the polar star does for mariners, in guiding them to their port."
• "It isn't so brilliant, by any means, as the pole star of the north, which is of the second magnitude; and, by the way, that reminds me of what Dr. Whitney told me in the desert of Sahara, that what we called the polar star in the north is not directly over the pole, but nearly a degree away."