Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Astronomy Any of numerous small solar system bodies that revolve around the sun, with orbits lying chiefly between Mars and Jupiter and characteristic diameters roughly between one and several hundred kilometers.
- adjective Star-shaped.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Star-like.
- Having a flower like that of an aster.
- noun One of the small planets, 280 or more in number, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter: more accurately called
planetoids . Seeplanetoid . - noun One of the Asteroidea; a starfish, in a wide sense.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A starlike body; esp. one of the numerous small planets whose orbits lie between those of Mars and Jupiter; -- called also
planetoids andminor planets .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun astronomy A naturally occurring solid object, which is smaller than a planet and is not a
comet , that orbits a star - noun astronomy In the Solar system, such a body that orbits within the orbit of Jupiter
- noun zoology Any member of the taxonomic class
Asteroidea ; astarfish
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective shaped like a star
- noun any of numerous small celestial bodies composed of rock and metal that move around the sun (mainly between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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* And the only thing that can stop this asteroid is your liberal arts degree.
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The explanation for the 'asteroid' is a rather interesting SF-nal idea, but Roberts doesn't really go anywhere with it, he leaves it hanging.
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An asteroid is going to come whizzing by, as the Bad Astronomer points out.
Archive 2009-03-02 Nicole 2009
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What if we go back to the GOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLDDDDD standard, but the asteroid is made of GOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLD?
Matthew Yglesias » Kinsley’s Transcendental Deduction of Hyperinflation 2010
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Real Science: New radar observations have revealed that a near-Earth asteroid is actually three rocks.
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An asteroid is going to come whizzing by, as the Bad Astronomer points out.
This weekend's tidbits... Nicole 2009
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What†™ s the trajectory of the asteroid? †“Tracking stations report that the asteroid is heading out of the ecliptic.
365 tomorrows » featured writer : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day 2009
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That means no posting here for a day or two (unless something important happens like NASA announces an asteroid is heading toward earth).
Friends 2009
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A large asteroid is on a collision course with Earth.
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Do we know when the next asteroid is going to hit?
alexz commented on the word asteroid
1819, people are hating on the word asteroid
https://goo.gl/9HXhSr
"But all this is, in our opinion, very unnecessary, while it is indicative of a jealousy with regard to fame, unworthy of him who has discovered whole words. And, after all, the new term is by no means appropriate. An asteroid is, from its derivation, "a body resembling fixed stars:" newly-found heavenly bodies have no one circumstance in common with those luminaries. "
July 17, 2015