How do you use the word "rocket" in a sentence?

Q: How do you use the word "rocket" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "rocket": Our calculations show that the rocket is off its course. The astronauts went up to the moon in a rocket.

Rocket Meaning

/ˈɹɒk.ɪt/

Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

nounA projectile.

nounA projectile., A cylindrical projectile that can be fired to a great height through combustion, (specifically) a type of firework of this form, typically exploding with light and colour; a skyrocket.

Sentence Examples

Our calculations show that the rocket is off its course.

The astronauts went up to the moon in a rocket.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

projectile

Antonyms:

None

CEFR Practice Quiz

The powerful ____ launched into space carrying a satellite for communication.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

The space agency launched a ____ carrying a new communications satellite into orbit.

Word Origin & History

From Italian rocchetta, from Old Italian rocchetto (“rocket”, literally “a bobbin”), diminutive of rocca (“a distaff”), from Lombardic rocko (“spinning wheel”), from Proto-West Germanic *rokkō, from Proto-Germanic *rukkô (“a distaff, a staff with flax fibres tied loosely to it, used in spinning thread”). Cognate with Old High German rocco, rocko, roccho, rocho ("a distaff"; > German Rocken (“a distaff”)), Swedish rock (“a distaff”), Icelandic rokkur (“a distaff”), Middle English rocke (“a distaff”). More at rock⁴. For the meaning development, compare fuselage, ultimately from Latin fūsus (“spindle, spinning wheel”).

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"As Elon Musk returns his focus to his businesses, one of his most important companies just had another setback: A SpaceX Starship rocket exploded in an immense fireball Wednesday during a routine ground test." — 2025 June 19, Hadas Gold, Jackie Wattles, “Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets keep blowing up at the worst possible time”, in CNN Business, archived from the original on 02 Jul 2025:

"Asked by Gallup in 1949 whether “men in rockets will be able to reach the moon” within the next 50 years, just 15% said yes. About five years later, confidence in the men in rockets’ prospects had more than doubled to 38%. […] In a Gallup poll conducted near the start of 1955, just 9% said they’d like to go along on the first rocket ship to the moon if asked, and two years later, just 5% said they’d volunteer to be the first one up in a spacecraft." — 2026 April 9, Ariel Edwards-Levy, “Would you go to the moon? Board an alien spacecraft? What nearly 80 years of polls say about US attitudes on space”, in CNN, archived from the original on 11 Apr 2026:

"Fernandinho launched a rocket that flew just over. Gundogan's shot hit off Sviatchenko and Gordon and went out. City pressed and pressed." — 2016 September 28, Tom English, “Celtic 3–3 Manchester City”, in BBC Sport, BBC Sport, archived from the original on 10 Oct 2016:

"The Burmese nurse who'd gone with her was crying, for which she'd no doubt get a rocket from matron." — 1973, Elizabeth Mavor, A Green Equinox, Virago, published 2023, page 93:

"While Solborg and Lemaigre were dreaming of revolts, Donovan had learned of Solborg’s insubordination and meddling. He sent him a “rocket” ordering him out of North Africa and back to Lisbon at once." — 1980, David Schoenbrun, Soldiers of the Night: The Story of the French Resistance, Dutton, →ISBN, page 203:

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