Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A Russian or Soviet astronaut.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun an astronaut; -- a term used by the Soviets and Russians.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An astronaut, especially a Russian or Soviet one.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a person trained to travel in a spacecraft

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Russian kosmonavt : Greek kosmos, universe + Greek nautēs, sailor; see nāu- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the Russian космонавт (kosmonávt), from Ancient Greek κόσμος (kosmos, "universe") + ναύτης (nautēs, "sailor").

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Examples

  • An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft.

    Is Senator Bill Nelson an Astronaut? - NASA Watch 2009

  • Once the cosmonaut is in then the appendix is rolled up and secured with strong elastic bands.

    Kuriositas: The 10 Coolest Space Suit Designs 2010

  • The Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft will dock with the ISS on Sunday, where the crew will join Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, U.S. astronaut Timothy Creamer, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi.

    RIA Novosti 2010

  • The Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft will dock with the ISS on Sunday, where the crew will join Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, U.S. astronaut Timothy Creamer, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi.

    RIA Novosti 2010

  • The Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft will dock with the ISS on Sunday, where the crew will join Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, U.S. astronaut Timothy Creamer, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi.

    RIA Novosti 2010

  • The Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft will dock with the ISS on Sunday, where the crew will join Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, U.S. astronaut Timothy Creamer, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi.

    RIA Novosti 2010

  • But the cosmonaut was a woman, a fact that Kinsman did not know until he had pulled the airhose out of her helmet, suffocating her.

    Ten Minutes, That's It Benjamin Kral 2010

  • I was inspecting their satellite ... how'd I know their cosmonaut was a scared kid?

    Ten Minutes, That's It Benjamin Kral 2010

  • Later on in the conversation, when Nicole told Dr. Hakamatsu that the unexplained data had actually come from the probes inside one of his countrymen, namely cosmonaut-scientist Takagishi, the usually restrained engineer had actually shouted into the phone.

    Rama Revisited Clarke, Arthur C. 1989

  • According to Wired, the astronaut is actually a cosmonaut, which is just a Russian version of an astronaut.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com The Huffington Post News Editors 2011

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