(astronomy, dated) the Milky Way Galaxy, from before it was realized that the Milky Way was not the only "galaxy"

(now rare) The Milky Way; the apparent band of concentrated stars which appears in the night sky over earth.

To furnish with galaxies. / (archaic) To gather together into a luminous whole.

plural of galaxy

A galaxy having a smooth, featureless light-profile. It is one of the three main classes of galaxies originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work “The Realm of the Nebulae”.

(astronomy) Type of galaxy that is very luminous at radio wavelengths.

(astronomy) A spiral galaxy in the Local Group and closest to the Milky Way, visible to the naked eye in the constellation of Andromeda, the brightest of the Messier objects and often referred to by its designation M31.

(astronomy) A galaxy having a number of arms of younger stars that spiral out from the centre containing older ones

(astronomy) A galaxy which is has no spirals and is not elliptical.

(astronomy) A galaxy that, like spiral galaxies, has a flat disk, but unlike them has lost most of its interstellar matter and therefore has no spirals; considered a transitional form between spirals and elliptical galaxies.