asteroid

CEFRB2

/ˈæst(ə)ɹɔɪd/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A rocky object that travels around the sun.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    Any member of the taxonomic class Asteroidea; a starfish.

Examples

  • A rogue asteroid from the Kuiper Belt is on a collision course with the Earth.

  • An asteroid passed close to Earth on Saturday.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. In the Solar System, such a body that orbits within the orbit of Jupiter.

  2. A naturally occurring solid object, which is smaller than a planet and a dwarf planet, larger than a meteoroid and not a comet, that orbits a star and often has an irregular shape.

More examples

In context

  • The asteroid broke up into small pieces as it entered Earth's atmosphere.

  • The orbital planes of asteroids, minor bodies that circle the Sun mainly between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, are often more tilted ...

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The massive blank passed close to Earth last night, but NASA confirmed it posed no collision threat.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

]Introuced by German–British astronomer William Herschel in 1802 upon the suggestion of classical scholar Charles Burney Jr. (1757–1817), the son of music historian Charles Burney, a friend of Herschel's. Probably coined as a learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀστεροειδής (asteroeidḗs, “starlike”), from ἀστήρ (astḗr, “celestial body”) + -ειδής (-eidḗs, adjective-forming suffix). By surface analysis, aster + -oid.