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 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.
2. 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.

3. 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
• nonperiodic comet
• non-periodic 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) (gisastł)
• 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)

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

  Min Nan: 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)

• 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 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 (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
• Luxembourgish: Koméit (lb) m
• Lü: ᦡᦱᧁᦠᦱᧂ (daaw¹haaŋ¹)
• Macedonian: коме́та f (kométa)
• Malay: komet
• Malayalam: ധൂമകേതു (ml) (dhūmakētu), വാൽനക്ഷത്രം (ml) (vālnakṣatraṃ)
• Maltese: kometa f
• Maori: unahiroa, whetūrere
• Marathi: धूमकेतू (dhūmketū)
• 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
• 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)
• Telugu: తోకచుక్క (te) (tōkacukka)
• Thai: ดาวหาง (th) (daao-hǎang)
• Tlingit: xoodzí
• Turkish: kuyruklu yıldız (tr)
• Turkmen: kometa
• Tày: đao hang
• 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 f
• 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. third-person singular present indicative form of cometre
2. second-person singular imperative form of cometre

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