English Explanatory Dictionary

comet

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. 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.
  2. A celestial phenomenon with the appearance of such a body.
  3. Any of several species of hummingbird found in the Andes.
name
  1. The fifth reindeer of Santa Claus.
name
  1. 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.

Pronunciation

/ˈkɒmɪt/ /ˈkɑmət/ en-us-comet.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Comet.wav

Word forms

comet comets

Etymology

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”).

Synonyms

☄ faxed star

Derived words

Biela's Comet cometarium cometary comet darner cometesimal comet-finder cometic cometless cometlike Comet Neowise cometocentric cometographer cometography cometoid cometology 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
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