comet
/ˈkɒmɪt/
comet noun: a small Solar System body consisting mainly of volatile ice, dust and particles of rock whose very eccentric solar orbit periodically brings it close enough to the Sun that the ice vaporises to form an atmosphere, or coma, which may be blown by the solar wind to produce a visible tail.
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Noun
comet (plural comets)
- A small Solar System body consisting mainly of volatile ice, dust and particles of rock whose very eccentric solar orbit periodically brings it close enough to the Sun that the ice vaporises to form an atmosphere, or coma, which may be blown by the solar wind to produce a visible tail.
- And They made by the lifting of Their hands, each god according to his sign, the Bright One with the flaring tail to seek from the end of the Worlds to the end of them again, to return again after a hundred years. Man, when thou seest the comet, know that another seeketh besides thee nor ever...1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC
- A celestial phenomenon with the appearance of such a body.
- Upon his browes was pourtraid vgly death,
And in his eies the furies of his heart,
That ſhine as Comets, menacing reueng,
And caſts a pale complexion on his cheeks.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
- Upon his browes was pourtraid vgly death,
- Any of several species of hummingbird found in the Andes.
Proper noun (1) capitalized: Comet
Comet
- The fifth reindeer of Santa Claus.
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Comet
Comet
- A web application model in which a long-held HTTP request allows a web server to push data to a browser, without the browser explicitly requesting it.
comet meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
comet in Hindi
- a celestial body, generally with a tail
- धूमकेतु dhūmketu, केतुग्रह ketugrah, पुच्छल तारा pucchal tārā, केतु ketu, केतुतारा ketutārā
comet in Tamil
- a celestial body, generally with a tail
- வால்வெள்ளி vālveḷḷi
comet in Marathi
- a celestial body, generally with a tail
- धूमकेतू dhūmketū
comet in Urdu
- a celestial body, generally with a tail
- کومِٹ komiṭ, دُم دار تارا dum dār tārā, دُومْکیت dūmket
More languagesFewer languages
- comet in Bengali
- ধূমকেতু dhumketu
- comet in Telugu
- తోకచుక్క tōkacukka
- comet in Malayalam
- ധൂമകേതു dhūmakētu, വാൽനക്ഷത്രം vālnakṣatraṁ
- comet in Kannada
- ಧೂಮಕೇತು dhūmakētu
- comet in Punjabi
- ਧੂਮਕੇਤੂ dhūmketū
- comet in Gujarati
- ધૂમકેતુ dhūmketu, પૂંછડિયો તારો pū̃chḍiyo tāro
- comet in Odia
- ଧୂମକେତୁ dhumaketu
- comet in Sanskrit
- धूमकेतु dhūmaketu, केतुतारा ketutārā, उपग्रह upagraha, केतु ketu
- comet in Sinhala
- වල්ගාතරු walgātaru
- comet in Assamese
- ধূমকেতু dhumketu
- comet in Nepali
- धूमकेतु dhūmketu
- comet in Pashto
- لکۍ لرونکی ستوری
- comet in Tagalog
- barikod, kometa, bandus
- comet in Arabic
- مُذَنَّب muḏannab
- comet in Malay
- komet
- comet in Indonesian
- komet
- comet in Thai
- ดาวหาง daao-hǎang
- comet in Vietnamese
- sao chổi
- comet in Myanmar
- ကြယ်တံခွန် kraitamhkwan
- Sindhi
- پُڇُڙُ تارو pučhurru tārow
- Dhivehi
- ގިނިހިލަ ginihila
Examples of comet in a sentence
- A massive comet or asteroid appears to have ended the era of the dinosaurs.
- Astronomers have compared comets to dirty snowballs.
- Astronomers predicted the track of the comet.
Synonyms of comet
Forms of comet
| plural | comets |
|---|
Origin of comet
From Middle English comete, partly from Old English comēta and partly from Old French comete, both from Latin comētēs, from Ancient Greek κομήτης (komḗtēs, “longhaired”), short for ἀστὴρ κομήτης ([astēr] komētēs, "longhaired [star])" and referring to the tail of a comet, from κόμη (kómē, “hair”). Compare English faxed star and Latin crīnīta stēlla (“comet”, literally “(long) haired star”).
First attested in the 1823 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”. From comet.
Coined by software engineer Alex Russell in March 2006. After the Comet brand of cleaning products, as a pun on Ajax, which is also both a Web programming technique and a brand of cleaning products.
Words formed from comet
- Biela's Comet
- cometarium
- cometary
- comet darner
- cometesimal
- comet-finder
- cometic
- cometless
- cometlike
- Comet Neowise
- cometocentric
- cometographer
- cometography
- cometoid
- cometology
- comet orchid
- comet-seeker
- comet star
- comet tail
- cometwise
- dead comet
- exocomet
- great comet
- Halley's Comet
- interstellar comet
- near-Earth comet
- parabolic comet
- periodical comet
- periodic comet
- short-period comet
- short period comet
- supercomet
- vomit comet
Phrases with comet
Words that rhyme with comet
Questions about comet
- What does comet mean?
- Comet means a small Solar System body consisting mainly of volatile ice, dust and particles of rock whose very eccentric solar orbit periodically brings it close enough to the Sun that the ice vaporises to form an atmosphere, or coma, which may be blown by the solar wind to produce a visible tail.
- What is comet in Hindi?
- Comet in Hindi is धूमकेतु (dhūmketu), केतुग्रह (ketugrah), पुच्छल तारा (pucchal tārā). See Comet meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is comet?
- Comet can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce comet?
- Comet is pronounced /ˈkɒmɪt/.
- What is the plural of comet?
- The plural of comet is comets.
Words near comet in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: comet (page history and authors); Comet (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-comet.ogg.
Cite this entry: “comet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/comet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.