Webster's English Dictionary

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aster

as.ter \'as-t*r\ n [NL, genus name, fr. L, aster, fr. Gk aster-, aste-r 
   star, aster] [NL, fr. Gk aster-, aste-r] - more at STAR 1: any of various 
   chiefly fall-blooming leafy-stemmed composite herbs (A ster and closely 
   related genera) with often showy heads containing tubular flowers or both 
   tubular and ray flowers 2: a system of gelated cytoplasmic rays typically 
   arranged radially about a  centrosome at either end of the mitotic spindle 
   and sometimes persisting between mitoses