Word.ws English Dictionary

periodical comet

periodical comet is the alternative form of periodic comet.

Meaning of periodic comet

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

Forms of periodical comet

pluralperiodical comets

Questions about periodical comet

What is periodical comet the alternative form of?
Periodical comet is the alternative form of periodic comet.

Words near periodical comet in the dictionary

  1. periodic table
  2. periodic tables
  3. periodical
  4. periodical cicada
  5. periodical cicadas
  6. periodical comet
  7. periodical comets
  8. periodicalist
  9. periodicalists
  10. periodicalize
  11. periodicalized

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: periodical comet (page history and authors); 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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “periodical comet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/periodical_comet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.