• (RP) IPA: /ˈsɪnəzjʊə/, /-sjʊə/, /-ʃʊə/
• (GA) IPA: /ˈsaɪnəʃʊɹ/, /ˈsɪn-/, /-ʃɚ/

cynosure (plural cynosures)

1. (usually capitalized) Ursa Minor or Polaris, the North Star, used as a guide by navigators.
2. (figuratively) That which serves to guide or direct; a guiding star.

   let faith be your cynosure to walk by

3. (figuratively) Something that is the center of attention; an object that serves as a focal point of attraction and admiration.
   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, “Astræa Redux”, in The French Revolution: A History [...] In Three Volumes, volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall Limited, OCLC 1026761782 ↗, book II (The Paper Age):

     Meanwhile the fair young Queen, in her halls of state, walks like a goddess of Beauty, the cynosure of all eyes; as yet mingles not with affairs; heeds not the future; least of all, dreads it.

   • 2002, Colin Jones (historian), The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 306:

     With anglophobia driving out anglophilia, the king – as during the Seven Years War – came to represent the very cynosure of patriotic zeal.

• French: tramontane, guide, mentor, chien d'aveugle (figuratively), parangon
• German: Leitstern
• Italian: tramontana, guida
• Russian: путево́дная звезда́
• Spanish: tramontana, guia, lazarillo (figuratively)

• French: point de mire, cible, foyer
• German: Anziehungspunkt, Blickfang, Fokus
• Russian: центр внимание
• Spanish: blanco de las miradas, foco