Comet

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Comet \Com"et\, n. [L. cometes, cometa, from Gr. ? comet, prop.
     long-haired, fr. ? to wear long hair, fr. ? hair, akin to L.
     coma: cf. F. com[`e]te.] (Astron.)
     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.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

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

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  27 Moby Thesaurus words for "comet":
     Aldebaran, Canicula, Dog Star, Hesper, Hesperus, Lucifer,
     North Star, Phosphor, Phosphorus, Polaris, Sirius, Venus, Vesper,
     celestial body, daystar, evening star, fixed stars, heavenly body,
     living sapphires, lodestar, morning star, orb, polar star,
     polestar, sphere, starry host, stars