cosmonaut

English

The cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova

Etymology

Borrowed from Russian космона́вт (kosmonávt), from Ancient Greek κόσμος (kósmos, “universe”) + ναύτης (naútēs, “sailor”). By surface analysis, cosmo- +‎ -naut.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kŏz'mənôt
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒz.məˌnɔːt/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑz.məˌnɔt/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑz.məˌnɑt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

cosmonaut (plural cosmonauts)

1. An astronaut, especially a Russian or Soviet one.
   • 2021 April 12, Gregory McNamee, “This Soviet cosmonaut was the first human in orbit — fueling the space race”, in CNN‎^[1], archived from the original on 1 December 2025:

     Khrushchev’s answer came 60 years ago, on April 12, 1961, when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin circled the Earth aboard a spacecraft called Vostok 1.

   • 2025 April 19, Ashley Strickland, “An astronaut’s awe-inspiring views from life in space”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     Longtime NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who has ventured to space four times, returned to Earth on Saturday night from the International Space Station. Pettit, who turned 70 on Sunday, landed at 9:20 p.m. ET in a Soyuz spacecraft with Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner near Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, after a seven-month stay aboard the orbiting laboratory.

Derived terms

• cosmonautic
• cosmonautical
• cosmonautics
• cosmonette
• dogmonaut

Related terms

• aeronaut
• astronaut
• cosmos
• spationaut
• taikonaut
• vyomanaut

Translations

an astronaut, especially a Russian or Soviet one — see also astronaut

• Arabic: رَجُل فَضَاء m (rajul faḍāʔ), رَائِد فَضَاء m (rāʔid faḍāʔ), مَلَّاح فَضَائِيّ m (mallāḥ faḍāʔiyy)
• Armenian: տիեզերագնաց (hy) (tiezeragnacʻ)
• Azerbaijani: kosmonavt
• Belarusian: касмана́ўт m (kasmanáwt)
• Bulgarian: космона́вт (bg) m (kosmonávt)
• Catalan: cosmonauta (ca) m or f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 太空人 (zh) (tàikōngrén), 宇航員 / 宇航员 (zh) (yǔhángyuán), 航天員 / 航天员 (zh) (hángtiānyuán), 宇宙飛行員 / 宇宙飞行员 (yǔzhòu fēixíngyuán)

• Cornish: stervarner m, stervarnores f
• Czech: kosmonaut (cs) m
• Dutch: kosmonaut (nl) m, kosmonaute f
• Esperanto: kosmonaŭto
• Estonian: kosmonaut
• Finnish: kosmonautti (fi)
• French: cosmonaute (fr) m
• Galician: cosmonauta (gl) m or f
• Georgian: კოსმონავტი (ḳosmonavṭi)
• German: Kosmonaut (de) m
• Greek: κοσμοναύτης (el) m (kosmonáftis)
• Hebrew: קוסמונאוט m (kosmonaut), קוסמונאוטית f (kosmonaut'it)
• Hindi: अंतरिक्ष यात्री m (antrikṣ yātrī)
• Hungarian: kozmonauta (hu)
• Ido: kosmonauto (io)
• Italian: cosmonauta (it)
• Japanese: 宇宙飛行士 (ja) (うちゅうひこうし, uchū hikōshi), コスモノート (kosumonōto)
• Korean: 우주비행사(宇宙飛行士) (ko) (ujubihaengsa)
• Kyrgyz: учурчу (ucurcu)
• Lithuanian: kosmonautas m, kosmonautė f
• Malay: kosmonaut
• Mongolian: сансрын нисэгч (sansryn nisegč)
• Navajo: wótááhgóó ałnááʼáłtʼahí
• Persian: فضانورد (fa) (fazânavard)
• Polish: astronauta (pl) m pers, astronautka (pl) f, kosmonauta (pl) m pers, kosmonautka (pl) f
• Portuguese: cosmonauta (pt) m or f
• Romanian: cosmonaut (ro) m, cosmonaută (ro) f
• Russian: космона́вт (ru) m (kosmonávt)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: космонаут m, астронаут m

  Latin: kosmonaut (sh) m, astronaut (sh) m

• Spanish: cosmonauta (es) m or f
• Swedish: kosmonaut (sv) c
• Tagalog: malimayaw
• Thai: นักบินอวกาศ (nák-bin-à-wá-gàat)
• Turkish: kozmonot (tr), astronot (tr), uçurcu, fezagir
• Ukrainian: космона́вт m (kosmonávt)
• Vietnamese: nhà du hành vũ trụ, phi hành gia
• Yiddish: קאָסמאָנויט m (kosmonoyt)

Romanian

Alternative forms

• космонаут (cosmonaut) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling

Etymology

Borrowed from French cosmonaute. By surface analysis, cosmo- + -naut.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kos.mo.na.ˈut/

Noun

cosmonaut m (plural cosmonauți, feminine equivalent cosmonaută)

1. cosmonaut

   Synonym: astronaut

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	cosmonaut	cosmonautul	cosmonauți	cosmonauții
genitive-dative	cosmonaut	cosmonautului	cosmonauți	cosmonauților
vocative	cosmonautule		cosmonauților

Further reading

• “cosmonaut”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026