Definitions for Comet
ˈkɒm ɪtcomet

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:3.1 / 7 votes

1. cometnoun

   (astronomy) a relatively small extraterrestrial body consisting of a frozen mass that travels around the sun in a highly elliptical orbit

WiktionaryRate this definition:3.0 / 1 vote

1. cometnoun

   A celestial body consisting mainly of ice, dust and gas in a (usually very eccentric) orbit around the Sun and having a "tail" of matter blown back from it by the solar wind as it approaches the Sun.

2. cometnoun

   A celestial phenomenon with the appearance given by the orbiting celestial body.

3. Etymology: From comete (French: comète), from cometa, from κομήτης, referring to the tail of a comet, from κόμη.

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. COMETnoun

   A heavenly body in the planetary region appearing suddenly, and again disappearing; and, during the time of its appearance, moving through its proper orbit, like a planet. The orbits of comets are ellipses, having one of their foci in the center of the sun; and being very long and eccentrick, they become invisible, when in that part most remote from the sun. Comets, popularly called blazing stars, are distinguished from other stars by a long train or tail of light, always opposite to the sun: hence arises a popular division of comets into three kinds, bearded, tailed, and haired comets; though the division rather relates to the different circumstances of the same comet, than to the phænomena of the several. Thus when the comet is eastward of the sun, and moves from it, the comet is said to be bearded, barbatus, because the light marches before it. When the light is westward of the sun, the comet is said to be tailed, because the train follows it. When the comet and the sun are diametrically opposite, the earth being between them, the train is hid behind the body of the comet, excepting a little that appears around it, in form of a border of hair, hence called crinitus. According to Isaac Newton, the tail of a comet is a very thin slender vapour, emitted by the head or nucleus of the comet, ignited by their near neighbourhood to the sun, and this vapour is furnished by the atmosphere of the comet. The tails are of various lengths; and being produced in the perihelions of the comets, will go off along with their heads into remote regions, and there gradually vanish, ’till the comets return towards the sun. The vapours of comets being thus dilated, rarefied, and diffused through all the celestial regions, may probably, by little and little, by means of their own gravity, be attracted down to the planets, and become intermingled with their atmospheres. For the conservation of the water, and moisture of the planets, comets seem absolutely requisite; from whose condensed vapours and exhalations all that moisture which is spent in vegetations and putrefactions, and turned into dry earth, may be resupplied and recruited; for all vegetables grow and increase wholly from fluids; and, as to their greatest part, turn by putrefaction into earth again, an earthy slime being perpetually precipitated to the bottom of putrefying liquors. Hence the quantity of dry earth must continually increase, and the moisture of the globe decrease, and at last be quite evaporated, if it have not a continual supply from some part or other of the universe. And I suspect, adds Isaac Newton, that the spirit which makes the finest, subtilest, and best part of our air, and which is absolutely requisite for the life and being of all things, comes principally from the comets. On this principle there seems to be some foundation for the popular opinion of presages from comets; since the tail of a comet, thus intermingled with our atmosphere, may produce changes very sensible in animal and vegetable bodies. The same great author has computed that the sun’s heat, in the comet of 1680, was, to his heat with us at Midsummer, as twenty-eight thousand to one; and that the heat of the body of the comet, was near two thousand times as great as that of red-hot iron. He also calculates, that a globe of red-hot iron, of the dimensions of our earth, would scarce be cool in fifty thousand years. If then the comet be supposed to cool a hundred times as fast as red-hot iron, yet, since its heat was a thousand times greater, supposing it of the bigness of the earth, it would not be cool in a million of years. Hitherto no comet has threatened the earth with a nearer approach than that of 1680; for, by calculation, Dr. Halley found, on November 11, that comet was not above one semidiameter of the earth to the northward of the way of the earth; at which time, had the earth been in that part of its orbit, the comet would have had a parallax equal to that of the moon. What might have been the consequence of so near an appulse? a contact or shock of the celestial bodies? a deluge, Mr. Whiston says. Astronomers have been divided about the return of comets, and time and observation must determine the question. However, Dr. Halley has foretold the return of one in 1758, which formerly appeared in1456. Antoine Furetière Ephraim Chambers

   Etymology: cometa, Latin, a hairy star.

   And wherefore gaze this goodly company,
   As if they saw some wond’rous monument,
   Some comet, or an unusual prodigy. William Shakespeare, Tam. of the Shrew.

   Such his fell glances as the fatal light
   Of staring comets. Richard Crashaw.

   I considered a comet, or, in the language of the vulgar, a blazing star, as a sky-rocket discharged by an hand that is almighty. Joseph Addison, Guardian, №. 103.

   Fierce meteors shoot their arbitrary light,
   And comets march with lawless horrors bright. Matthew Prior.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Comet

   A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind acting upon the nucleus of the comet. Comet nuclei range from a few hundred meters to tens of kilometers across and are composed of loose collections of ice, dust, and small rocky particles. The coma may be up to 15 times Earth's diameter, while the tail may stretch beyond one astronomical unit. If sufficiently bright, a comet may be seen from Earth without the aid of a telescope and may subtend an arc of 30° (60 Moons) across the sky. Comets have been observed and recorded since ancient times by many cultures and religions. Comets usually have highly eccentric elliptical orbits, and they have a wide range of orbital periods, ranging from several years to potentially several millions of years. Short-period comets originate in the Kuiper belt or its associated scattered disc, which lie beyond the orbit of Neptune. Long-period comets are thought to originate in the Oort cloud, a spherical cloud of icy bodies extending from outside the Kuiper belt to halfway to the nearest star. Long-period comets are set in motion towards the Sun from the Oort cloud by gravitational perturbations caused by passing stars and the galactic tide. Hyperbolic comets may pass once through the inner Solar System before being flung to interstellar space. The appearance of a comet is called an apparition. Comets are distinguished from asteroids by the presence of an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere surrounding their central nucleus. This atmosphere has parts termed the coma (the central part immediately surrounding the nucleus) and the tail (a typically linear section consisting of dust or gas blown out from the coma by the Sun's light pressure or outstreaming solar wind plasma). However, extinct comets that have passed close to the Sun many times have lost nearly all of their volatile ices and dust and may come to resemble small asteroids. Asteroids are thought to have a different origin from comets, having formed inside the orbit of Jupiter rather than in the outer Solar System. The discovery of main-belt comets and active centaur minor planets has blurred the distinction between asteroids and comets. In the early 21st century, the discovery of some minor bodies with long-period comet orbits, but characteristics of inner solar system asteroids, were called Manx comets. They are still classified as comets, such as C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS). Twenty-seven Manx comets were found from 2013 to 2017.As of November 2021 there are 4584 known comets. However, this represents a very small fraction of the total potential comet population, as the reservoir of comet-like bodies in the outer Solar System (in the Oort cloud) is about one trillion. Roughly one comet per year is visible to the naked eye, though many of those are faint and unspectacular. Particularly bright examples are called "great comets". Comets have been visited by unmanned probes such as the European Space Agency's Rosetta, which became the first to land a robotic spacecraft on a comet, and NASA's Deep Impact, which blasted a crater on Comet Tempel 1 to study its interior.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. comet

   A comet is a celestial object that orbits around the sun, typically in a highly eccentric orbit, composed mostly of ice and dust. When in close proximity to the sun, this material generates a visible coma or envelope around the object, and sometimes also a tail, due to the radiation emitted by the sun.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Cometnoun

   a member of the solar system which usually moves in an elongated orbit, approaching very near to the sun in its perihelion, and receding to a very great distance from it at its aphelion. A comet commonly consists of three parts: the nucleus, the envelope, or coma, and the tail; but one or more of these parts is frequently wanting. See Illustration in Appendix

2. Etymology: [L. cometes, cometa, from Gr. comet, prop. long-haired, fr. to wear long hair, fr. hair, akin to L. coma: cf. F. comte.]

WikidataRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. Comet

   A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet. Comet nuclei range from a few hundred meters to tens of kilometers across and are composed of loose collections of ice, dust and small rocky particles. Comets have been observed since ancient times. Comets have a wide range of orbital periods, ranging from a few years to hundreds of thousands of years. Short-period comets originate in the Kuiper belt, or its associated scattered disc, which lie beyond the orbit of Neptune. Longer-period comets are thought to originate in the Oort cloud, a hypothesized spherical cloud of icy bodies in the outer Solar System. Long-period comets plunge towards the Sun from the Oort cloud because of gravitational perturbations caused by either the massive outer planets of the Solar System, or passing stars. Rare hyperbolic comets pass once through the inner Solar System before being thrown out into interstellar space along hyperbolic trajectories. Exocomets, comets beyond our solar system, have also been detected and may be common in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Comet

   kom′et, n. a heavenly body with an eccentric orbit, having a definite point or nucleus, a nebulous light surrounding the nucleus, and a luminous tail preceding or following the nucleus.—adjs. Com′etary, Comet′ic.—ns. Com′et-find′er, a telescope of low power used to search for comets; Cometog′raphy; Cometol′ogy. [Gr. komētēs, long-haired—komē, the hair.]

The Nuttall EncyclopediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Comet

   a member of the solar system under control of the sun, consisting of a bright nucleus within a nebulous envelope, generally extended into a tail on the rear of its orbit, which is extremely eccentric, pursuing its course with a velocity which increases as it approaches the sun, and which diminishes as it withdraws from it; these bodies are very numerous, have their respective periods of revolution, which have been in many cases determined by observation.

Suggested ResourcesRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. comet

   The comet symbol -- In this Symbols.com article you will learn about the meaning of the comet symbol and its characteristic.

Surnames Frequency by Census RecordsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. COMET

   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Comet is ranked #115639 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
   
   The Comet surname appeared 151 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Comet.
   
   72.8% or 110 total occurrences were White.
   11.9% or 18 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
   9.9% or 15 total occurrences were American Indian or Alaskan Native.
   3.9% or 6 total occurrences were Black.

Matched Categories

1. • Astronomy
   • Extraterrestrial Object

How to pronounce Comet?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say Comet in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of Comet in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of Comet in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2

Examples of Comet in a Sentence

1. Karen Meech:

   On our team we've been scrambling here at the University of Hawaii to get observations to make position measurements, every time a new comet is discovered, everybody starts to try and get data so that you can get the orbit.

2. Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis:

   It is also possible that a comet will hit planet Earth, (But) I don't believe that any sensible European bureaucrat or politician will go down that road.

3. Mark McCaughrean:

   This is not a 'dead' body, it's a living, breathing dragon of a comet.

4. Kathrin Altwegg:

   The first time we saw it I think we all went a little bit into denial because it was not expected to be found in a comet, molecular oxygen is very reactive. There was a lot of hydrogen around when the solar system was formed. Everybody and all models showed that molecular oxygen would react with the hydrogen and would no longer be present as molecular oxygen.

5. Elsa Montagnon:

   The comet is a very, very active object at the moment, it's a bit as if you were to imagine taking your car through a snowstorm, we reckon it should be safe but as soon as we see activity coming back we may have to retreat further.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=Comet
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Comet
3. ^ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
   https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=Comet
4. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet
5. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
6. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Comet
7. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=Comet
8. ^ Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37683/37683-h/37683-h.htm#:~:text=Comet
9. ^ The Nuttall Encyclopedia
   https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/12342/pg12342-images.html#Comet
10. ^ Surnames Frequency by Census Records
    https://www.census.gov/topics/population/genealogy/data/2010_surnames.html