Word.ws English Dictionary

counter-earth

counter-earth noun: a hypothetical planet sharing an orbit with the earth, but on the opposite side of the sun.

Noun (1)

counter-earth (plural not attested)

  1. (no plural) A hypothetical planet sharing an orbit with the earth, but on the opposite side of the sun.
    • To the same period may perhaps belong the theory that the comet is a separate planet; this eighth planet might serve, when the counter-earth had been discarded, to maintain the number ten in regard to the heavenly bodies.1881, Eduard Zeller, Sarah Frances Alleyne, A History of Greek Philosophy
    • The report of Aristotle and Philip of Opus, that the higher frequency of lunar than of solar eclipses was explained by the presence of the counter-earth, and perhaps also other earth-like bodies in space, takes us into a similar context.1972, Walter Burkert, Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism, page 344

Noun (2) capitalized: counter-Earth

counter-Earth

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of counter-earth.
    • Possibly to explain eclipses, and possibly to achieve for the astral world the perfection of the number Ten, Philolaus imagined that a dark Counter-Earth existed, invisible to the Earth.2001, B. K. Ridley, On Science
    • These ten Spheres were the sun, moon, Earth, the five additional known planets at the time—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn—the counter-Earth, and the central hearth.2005, Dimitra Karamanides, Pythagoras

Forms of counter-earth

alternative formcounter-Earth
alternative formcounterearth

Origin of counter-earth

From counter- + earth.

From counter- + Earth.

Questions about counter-earth

What does counter-earth mean?
Counter-earth means a hypothetical planet sharing an orbit with the earth, but on the opposite side of the sun.
What part of speech is counter-earth?
Counter-earth is a noun.

Words near counter-earth in the dictionary

  1. counter-courant
  2. counter-cultist
  3. counter-cultists
  4. counter-demonstration
  5. counter-demonstrations
  6. counter-earth
  7. counter-economics
  8. counter-electrophoresis
  9. counter-embattled
  10. counter-embowed
  11. Counter-Enlightenment

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: counter-earth (page history and authors); counter-Earth (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.

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