Word.ws English Dictionary

periodic comet

periodic comet noun: a comet which orbits the Sun and which returns to the innermost point of its orbit at known, regular intervals.

periodic comet: a comet which orbits the Sun and which returns to the innermost point of its orbit at known,...
Image: NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

periodic comet (plural periodic comets)

  1. A comet which orbits the Sun and which returns to the innermost point of its orbit at known, regular intervals.
    • The computation of the elements of its orbit reveals the fact that they are almost identical with those of Comet III, 1869, and hence it becomes what in astronomical language is called a periodic comet.1880, Lewis Swift, “The New Periodic Comet”, in Science, volume 1, number 21, page 258
    • Comet Temple-Tuttle is what astronomers call a "periodic comet," one of hundreds that routinely and predictably continue to orbit the Sun.2001 November 8, P. Clay Sherrod, Gian Trotta, “A History of the Leonid Storm”, in SPACE.com, retrieved 26 Jan 2016

Forms of periodic comet

pluralperiodic comets
alternative formperiodical comet

Questions about periodic comet

What does periodic comet mean?
Periodic comet means a comet which orbits the Sun and which returns to the innermost point of its orbit at known, regular intervals.
What part of speech is periodic comet?
Periodic comet is a noun.
What is the plural of periodic comet?
The plural of periodic comet is periodic comets.

Words near periodic comet in the dictionary

  1. perioded
  2. periodentosis
  3. periodic
  4. periodic acid
  5. periodic acids
  6. periodic comet
  7. periodic comets
  8. periodic continued fraction
  9. periodic continued fractions
  10. periodic fever syndrome
  11. periodic fever syndromes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: periodic 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.

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