Learn English – Can “star” mean “planet” (outside astrology)

word-requestword-usage

In Asian languages such as Japanese, we can choose not to make distinction between star like the Sun, planet like the Earth, and satellite like the Moon, calling them in a word usually translated as "star" (星). Does English allow to call a planet "star" too? I found out a definition of star in a dictionary say:

a planet or a configuration of the planets that is held in astrology to influence one's destiny or fortune —usually used in plural

but what I'd like to know is whether it's possible to call real planets in the space in such a way, or there is a blanket term roughly covers star, planet, satellite and asteroid (but not nebula or galaxy).

EDIT
Thank you for your comments. It needs to be clarified that I didn't intend to refer to "stars you look up at in the sky". Actually, we're able to form such a sentence, too.

タトゥイーンという星には約20万人が暮らしている。
Around 200 thousand people are living on a "star" called Tatooine.

You can see 星 can replace "planet" (惑星) in every situation unless you have to tell planets from other bodies. Is it possible in English?

Best Answer

Along roughly the same lines as Mr. Dant, I would say star can be used to refer to a planet in only two context in contemporary English:

  1. A mistake of ignorance when looking up into the sky. That star is pretty bright.

  2. Some specialized usage in astrology.

We could not say two hundred thousand people are living on that star.

Addendum, if we use the plural "stars", then we can say things like:

And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. (Deuteronomy 4:19, ESV)

or

When I look at the stars, I think all of the people in the universe.

We know that "stars" would include the stars and the planets. This usage of "the stars" is a synonym for "the heavens"

the best generic term we have is the scientific one "celestial body." In popular usage, I (being completely ignorant of astronomy) might call anything I look up and see at night (other than the moon or a plane) a star.

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