comet

IPA/ˈkɒmɪt/
KK[kˈɑmət]IPA/ˈkɑːmɪt/

comet — noun

  • cometsingular
  • cometsplural

1. A comet is a frozen ball of dust that circles the Sun. When the Sun warms its su

1.nounA2
Definition

A comet is a frozen ball of dust that circles the Sun. When the Sun warms its surface, the ice turns to gas and creates a long bright tail.

Example

Last night, Yara and her father watched a bright comet through their backyard telescope.

collocation: bright comet + watched through telescope

The old book contained drawings of a comet that appeared in the year 1066.

comet + appeared in [year] — historical record pattern

Common collocations
  • bright comet
  • comet's tail
  • passing comet
  • visible comet
  • comet orbits the Sun
Synonyms
  • asteroid

    similar in being a body that orbits the Sun, but an asteroid is made of rock or metal and has no tail

  • meteoroid

    a much smaller piece of rock or metal in space; a meteoroid becomes a 'meteor' when it burns up in Earth's atmosphere

Grammar Patterns

comet + verb (appears, passes, orbits, develops)

Usage Note

Distinguish from 'asteroid': a comet is mainly ice and dust and develops a visible tail near the Sun, while an asteroid is mainly rock or metal and does not produce a tail. The word is countable — you can say 'a comet', 'two comets', 'the comet'.

Common Mistakes

I saw a comet star in the sky last night.
I saw a comet in the sky last night.
A comet is not a type of star; it is an icy body that orbits the Sun.
There was a falling comet.
There was a shooting star / a meteor.
Comets do not 'fall' to Earth; the bright flash you see fall is a meteor, not a comet.

Word family

  • cometary
    adjectiveC1
  • comet-like
    adjectiveB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

These four space objects are often confused. A comet is a frozen ball of ice and dust that orbits the Sun and grows a bright, glowing tail when solar heat releases gas from its surface — Halley's Comet is the most famous example. An asteroid is made of rock or metal, orbits the Sun like a comet, but normally has no tail; the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter contains millions of them. A meteor is not an object at all — it is the short streak of light you see when a tiny piece of rock (a meteoroid) burns up in Earth's atmosphere, often called a 'shooting star'. If that piece survives the fall and hits the ground, it is called a meteorite. So when you see a flash in the night sky, you are watching a meteor, not a comet. When you look through a telescope at a fuzzy dot with a tail, you are seeing a comet.

comet ↗asteroid ↗meteor ↗meteorite ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • comet tail
  • comet sighting
  • comet nucleus
  • passing comet

Prepositions

  • across (the sky)
  • through (a telescope)
  • near (the Sun)
  • in (the sky)

Etymology

GreekLatinOld FrenchEnglish

The word comes from the Greek 'kometes', meaning 'long-haired' — ancient observers thought a comet's tail looked like flowing hair. It passed into Latin as 'cometes', then into Old French as 'comete', before entering English around the 13th century.