superstar

See also: Superstar

English

Etymology

From super- +‎ star.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsuː.pəˌstɑː/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈsu.pɚˌstɑɹ/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈsʉː.pəˌstaː/

Noun

superstar (plural superstars)

1. Someone who has accumulated a vast amount of fame; a high-level celebrity.
2. (corporate jargon) An exceptionally productive employee.
   • 2014 November 17, Lizzie Widdicombe, “The Programmer's Price”, in The New Yorker‎^[1], archived from the original on 2022-12-28:

     Want to hire a coding superstar? Call the agent.

   • 2017 May 19, Hui Liao, “Career Coach: How to handle the new hotshot on your team”, in The Washington Post‎^[2], archived from the original on 2020-08-28:

     Is your organization looking for its next new hire, that superstar performer to take things to the next level? Be careful: Organizations are greater than just one individual. If you're that superstar, remember to be a good team player. You'll feel better about your job and you'll perform at an even higher level.

   • 2017 October 15, Tara Golshan, “Study finds 75 percent of workplace harassment victims experienced retaliation when they spoke up”, in Vox‎^[3], archived from the original on 2023-02-11:

     "A superstar employee that is creating that toxic work environment is probably costing that company more than he or she is bringing in," Martin says.

   • 2022 June 27, Ariel Shapira, “As 'Tindery' hiring dies down, Unboxable's AI steers companies toward retention”, in The Jerusalem Post‎^[4], archived from the original on 2023-02-07:

     There's no sense in hiring a superstar developer who will quit after three months because she can't stand the management style or requires flexibility the hiring company doesn't offer.

3. (rare, astronomy) A giant star.
   • 1964, Life: Volume 56, No. 4‎^[5], →ISBN, page 11:

     The greater an object's mass, the greater its gravitational force. If a star could attain a certain mass --- say a million to 100 million times the mass of our own sun --- then its gravity would become 100 times as powerful as the forces generated by the strongest known nuclear reactions. Such a super superstar, in a normal course of its evolution, would contract..

   • 1975, Harold W. G. Allen, The Edge of the Universe: What is Our Destiny? Is There Life After Death? What Incredible Secret Lies in the Depths of Space?‎^[6], Allen Book Pub., page 36:

     Toward the centre of the cluster, where they were more strongly congested, the whole region glowed as though as it were a monstrous superstar.

   • 1979, Michael Zeilik, Astronomy: The Evolving Universe‎^[7], Harper and Row, →ISBN, page 379:

     Perhaps a supermassive cluster can coalesce to form a superstar -- a star with a mass of 1 million to 100 million solar masses.

Related terms

• megastar
• superstardom

Translations

very famous person

• Belarusian: суперзо́рка f (supjerzórka)
• Bulgarian: суперзвезда́ f (superzvezdá)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 巨星 (zh) (jùxīng), 超級明星／超级明星 (zh) (chāojí míngxīng)

• Czech: superhvězda f, superstar m
• Danish: superstjerne c
• Dutch: superster (nl) f or m, superstar (nl) m or f
• Estonian: superstaar
• Finnish: supertähti
• French: superstar (fr) f
• German: Superstar (de) m
• Hebrew: סוּפֶּרְסְטָאר m (súperstar)
• Hindi: सुपरस्टार m (suparsṭār), सुपरसितारा m (suparsitārā)
• Hungarian: szupersztár (hu)
• Italian: superstar f
• Japanese: スーパースター (sūpāsutā)
• Korean: 슈퍼스타 (syupeoseuta)
• Macedonian: суперѕвезда f (superdzvezda)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: superstjerne m or f

• Persian: سوپراستار (fa) (superestâr)
• Polish: wielka gwiazda f, supergwiazda f
• Portuguese: superestrela (pt) m or f, superstar (pt) m
• Romanian: superstar (ro) n
• Russian: суперзвезда́ (ru) f (superzvezdá)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: суперзвезда f, суперзвијезда f, су̏перста̄р m

  Roman: superzvezda f, superzvijezda f, sȕperstār (sh) m

• Slovak: superhviezda f, superstar m
• Slovene: superzvezda f, superstar m
• Spanish: superestrella f, superstar m or f
• Swedish: superstjärna (sv) c
• Thai: ซูเปอร์สตาร์ (suu-bpə̂ə-sà-dtaa)
• Turkish: süperstar
• Ukrainian: суперзі́рка f (superzírka)
• Vietnamese: siêu sao
• Welsh: archseren f

References

• “superstar”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• pasturers, pretarsus, super-rats, superrats

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English superstar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sy.pɛʁ.staʁ/

Noun

superstar f (plural superstars)

1. superstar (person)

Further reading

• “superstar”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English superstar. By surface analysis, super- +‎ star.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /su.perˈstar/, /su.peˈstar/
• Rhymes: -ar
• Hyphenation: su‧per‧stàr

Noun

superstar f (invariable)

1. superstar, megastar

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from English superstar.

Noun

superstar n (plural superstaruri)

1. superstar

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	superstar	superstarul		superstaruri	superstarurile
genitive-dative	superstar	superstarului		superstaruri	superstarurilor
vocative	superstarule			superstarurilor

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English superstar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌsupeɾesˈtaɾ/ [ˌsu.pe.ɾesˈt̪aɾ]
• Rhymes: -aɾ

Noun

superstar m or f by sense (plural superstars)

1. superstar

   Synonym: superestrella

   • 2007, El sueño de Morfeo, Mi columna de opinión:

     No soy una superstar aunque haya fotos en revistas y fans

     I'm not a superstar even if there are photos in magazines and fans

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.