comet

See also: Comet

English

The comet Hale–Bopp in the night sky.

Cometary symbol ⟨☄⟩

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.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kŏm'ət, IPA^(key): /ˈkɒmət/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒmɪt

Noun

comet (plural comets)

2. (astronomy) 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.
   • 1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC:

     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 findeth out.

3. A celestial phenomenon with the appearance of such a body.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene ii:

     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.

4. Any of several species of hummingbird found in the Andes.

Usage notes

A comet whose volatile ices have completely evaporated is said to be dead or extinct.

Synonyms

• ☄
• faxed star (rare, dialectal)

Derived terms

• Biela's Comet
• cometarium
• cometary
• comet darner (Aeshna longipes)
• cometesimal
• comet-finder
• cometic
• cometless
• cometlike
• cometocentric
• cometography
• cometoid
• cometology
• comet tail
• dead comet
• exocomet
• great comet
• Halley's Comet
• Halley's comet
• interstellar comet
• near-Earth comet
• parabolic comet
• periodical comet
• periodic comet
• short-period comet
• short period comet
• vomit comet

 

Descendants

• → Malay: komet
• → Urdu: کومٹ (komeṭ)
• → Welsh: comed

Translations

a celestial body, generally with a tail

• Afrikaans: komeet (af)
• Albanian: kometë (sq) f
• Arabic: مُذَنَّب (ar) m (muḏannab)

  Egyptian Arabic: مذنب m (muzanab)

• Armenian: գիսաստղ (hy) (gisastġ)
• Asturian: cometa (ast) m
• Azerbaijani: kometa
• Bashkir: комета (kometa)
• Basque: kometa (eu)
• Belarusian: каме́та f (kamjéta)
• Bengali: ধূমকেতু (bn) (dhumketu)
• Breton: steredenn-lostek (br) f
• Bulgarian: коме́та f (kométa)
• Burmese: ကြယ်တံခွန် (my) (kraitamhkwan)
• Catalan: cometa (ca) m
• Chechen: комета (kometa)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 彗星 (seoi⁶ sing¹), 掃把星／扫把星 (sou³ baa² sing¹)

  Hokkien: 長尾星／长尾星 (zh-min-nan) (tn̂g-bóe-chheⁿ, tn̂g-bóe-chhiⁿ), 掃帚星／扫帚星 (zh-min-nan) (sàu-chhiú-chheⁿ, sàu-chhiú-chhiⁿ), 彗星 (hūi-chheⁿ, hūi-chhiⁿ, hūi-seng)

  Mandarin: 彗星 (zh) (huìxīng), 掃帚星／扫帚星 (zh) (sàozhǒuxīng), 掃把星／扫把星 (zh) (sàobǎxīng)

• Czech: kometa (cs) f
• Danish: komet (da) c
• Dhivehi: ގިނިހިލަ (ginihila)
• Dutch: komeet (nl) m, staartster (nl) f
• Esperanto: kometo
• Estonian: komeet (et), sabatäht (colloquial)
• Fijian: kalokalo vaka-buina
• Finnish: komeetta (fi), pyrstötähti (fi)
• French: comète (fr) f
• Galician: cometa (gl) m
• Georgian: კომეტა (ḳomeṭa)
• German: Komet (de) m
• Greek: κομήτης (el) m (komítis)
• Gujarati: ધૂમકેતુ (dhūmketu), પૂંછડિયો તારો m (pū̃chḍiyo tāro)
• Hebrew: שָׁבִיט (he) m (shavit), כּוֹכַב שָׁבִיט (he) m (kokháv shavít)
• Hindi: धूमकेतु (hi) (dhūmketu), केतुग्रह m (ketugrah), पुच्छल तारा m (pucchal tārā), केतु (hi) m (ketu), केतुतारा (hi) m (ketutārā)
• Hungarian: üstökös (hu)
• Icelandic: halastjarna (is) f
• Ido: kometo (io)
• Indonesian: komet (id)
• Interlingua: cometa
• Irish: cóiméad
• Italian: cometa (it) f
• Japanese: 彗星 (ja) (すいせい, suisei), 箒星 (ja) (ほうきぼし, hōkiboshi)
• Kannada: ಧೂಮಕೇತು (kn) (dhūmakētu)
• Kazakh: комета (kometa)
• Khmer: ធូមកេតុ (tʰuumeaʔkaet), ផ្កាយដុះកន្ទុយ (phkaay doh kɑntuy)
• Korean: 혜성(彗星) (ko) (hyeseong)
• Kyrgyz: комета (ky) (kometa)
• Lao: ດາວຫາງ (lo) (dāo hāng)
• Latin: comētēs m, stella crītīna f
• Latvian: komēta f
• Lithuanian: kometa (lt) f
• Lü: ᦡᦱᧁᦠᦱᧂ (daaw¹haaŋ¹)
• Luxembourgish: Koméit (lb) m
• Macedonian: коме́та f (kométa)
• Malay: komet
• Malayalam: ധൂമകേതു (ml) (dhūmakētu), വാൽനക്ഷത്രം (ml) (vālnakṣatraṁ)
• Maltese: kometa f
• Maori: unahiroa, whetūrere
• Marathi: धूमकेतू (dhūmketū)
• Mi'kmaq: pugtewit anim
• Mongolian: сүүлт од (süült od)
• Nandi: cheptapis
• Navajo: sǫʼtsoh jóhonaaʼéí yináalwołígíí
• Norman: conmète f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: komet m

  Nynorsk: komet m

• Okinawan: 箒星 (ほーちぶし, hōchibushi), 入り髪星 (いりがんぶし, iriganbushi)
• Ottoman Turkish: قویروقلو یلدز (kuyruklu yıldız)
• Persian: دنباله‌دار (donbâle-dâr)
• Polish: kometa (pl) f
• Portuguese: cometa (pt) m
• Romanian: cometă (ro) f
• Russian: коме́та (ru) f (kométa)
• Sanskrit: धूमकेतु (sa) m (dhūmaketu), केतुतारा (sa) f (ketutārā), उपग्रह (sa) m (upagraha), केतु (sa) m (ketu)
• Scottish Gaelic: reul-chearbach f, reul earballach f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: комета f

  Roman: kometa (sh) f

• Sindhi: پُڇُڙُ تارو m (pučhurru tārow)
• Sinhalese: වල්ගාතරු (walgātaru)
• Slovak: kométa (sk) f
• Slovene: komet (sl) m, repatica (sl) f
• Somali: seef-cireed (so), dibdheer (so)
• Southern Altai: куйрукту јылдыс (kuyruktu ǰïldïs)
• Spanish: cometa (es) m
• Swedish: komet (sv) c
• Tagalog: barikod, kometa, bandus
• Tai Nüa: ᥘᥣᥝᥞᥣᥒᥴ (láawhaang)
• Tajik: комета (kometa), дунболадор (dunbolador)
• Tamil: வால்வெள்ளி (ta) (vālveḷḷi)
• Tatar: комета (qometa)
• Tày: đao hang
• Telugu: తోకచుక్క (te) (tōkacukka)
• Thai: ดาวหาง (th) (daao-hǎang)
• Tlingit: xoodzí
• Turkish: kuyruklu yıldız (tr)
• Turkmen: kometa
• Ukrainian: коме́та f (kométa)
• Urdu: کومٹ (komeṭ), دم دار تارا (dum dār tārā), دومکیت (dūmkēt)
• Uyghur: قۇيرۇقلۇق يۇلتۇز (ug) (quyruqluq yultuz)
• Uzbek: kometa (uz)
• Vietnamese: sao chổi (vi) (𣋀𥶲)
• Welsh: comed (cy) f
• West Frisian: komeet c
• Yiddish: קאָמעט m (komet)
• Yoruba: ìràwọ̀ onírù
• Yup'ik: agyuliq
• Zhuang: ndaundeiqsauqbaet
• Zulu: inkanyezi enomsila

Further reading

• comet on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Comte, comte

Catalan

Verb

comet

1. inflection of cometre:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Latin

Verb

cōmet

1. third-person singular future active indicative of cōmō

Romanian

Noun

comet n (plural comete)

1. Alternative form of cometă

Declension

Declension of comet

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) comet	cometul	(niște) comete	cometele
genitive/dative	(unui) comet	cometului	(unor) comete	cometelor
vocative	cometule		cometelor