noun pl. Venuses -·nuses

1. Rom. Myth. the goddess of love and beauty: identified with the Greek Aphrodite
2. a statue or image of Venus
3. a very beautiful woman
4. the brightest, sixth-largest planet in the solar system and the second in distance from the sun, with a dense atmosphere of carbon dioxide and a very high surface temperature: diameter, c. 12,100 km (c. 7,520 mi); period of revolution, c. 224.7 earth days; period of rotation (retrograde), 243.01 earth days; symbol, ♀

Etymology: ME < L, lit., love < IE *wenos, desire < base *wen-, to strive for, attain > OE wine, friend, winnan, to win