comet

See also: Comet

English

The comet Hale–Bopp in the night sky.

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)

1. (astronomy) A celestial body consisting mainly of ice, dust and gas in a (usually very eccentric) orbit around the Sun and having a "tail" of matter blown back from it by the solar wind as it approaches the Sun.
2. A celestial phenomenon with the appearance given by the orbiting celestial body.
3. Any of several species of hummingbird found in the Andes.

Synonyms

• faxed star (rare, dialectal)

Derived terms

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

 

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 m
• Azerbaijani: kometa
• Bashkir: комета (kometa)
• Basque: kometa (eu)
• Belarusian: каме́та f (kamjéta)
• Bengali: ধূমকেতু (dhumketu)
• Breton: steredenn-lostek 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), 扫把星 (sou³ baa² sing¹)

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

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

• 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)
• Finnish: komeetta (fi) (scientific), pyrstötähti (fi) (old, colloquial)
• French: comète (fr) f
• Galician: cometa (gl) m
• Georgian: კომეტა (ḳomeṭa)
• German: Komet (de) m
• Greek: κομήτης (el) m (komítis)
• Gujarati: ધૂમકેતુ (dhūmketu)
• Hebrew: שָׁבִיט m (shavit), כּוֹכַב שָׁבִיט m (kokháv shavít)
• Hindi: धूमकेतु (hi) (dhūmketu)
• 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 (ほうきぼし, hōkiboshi)
• Kannada: ಧೂಮಕೇತು (kn) (dhūmakētu)
• Kazakh: комета (kometa)
• Khmer: ធូមកេតុ (tʰuumeaʔkaet)
• Korean: 혜성 (ko) (hyeseong)
• Kyrgyz: комета (ky) (kometa)
• Lao: ດາວຫາງ (lo) (dāo hāng)
• Latin: comētēs m, stella crītīna f
• Latvian: komēta f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Lithuanian: kometa (lt) f
• Luxembourgish: Koméit m
• Macedonian: коме́та f (kométa)
• Malay: komet
• Malayalam: ധൂമകേതു (ml) (dhūmakētu)
• Maltese: kometa f
• Maori: unahiroa, whetūrere
• Marathi: धूमकेतू (dhūmketū)
• Mongolian: сүүлт од (süült od)
• 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)
• Persian: دنباله‌دار (dombâle-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)
• 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
• Spanish: cometa (es) m
• Swedish: komet (sv) c
• Tagalog: barikod, kometa, bandus
• Tajik: комета (kometa), дунболадор (dunbolador)
• Tamil: வால்வெள்ளி (ta) (vālveḷḷi)
• Tatar: комета (qometa)
• Telugu: తోకచుక్క (te) (tōkacukka)
• Thai: ดาวหาง (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)
• Welsh: comed f
• Yiddish: קאָמעט m (komet)
• Yup'ik: agyuliq
• Zhuang: ndaundeiqsauqbaet
• Zulu: please add this translation if you can

Anagrams

• Comte, comte

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Catalan

Verb

comet

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Latin

Verb

(deprecated template usage) cōmet

1. third-person singular future active indicative of cōmō