asteroid
noun
as·ter·oid
| \ ˈas-tə-ˌrȯid
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Definition of asteroid
(Entry 1 of 2)
1
: any of the small rocky celestial bodies found especially between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter
2
: starfish
asteroid
adjectiveDefinition of asteroid (Entry 2 of 2)
1
: resembling a star
asteroid bodies in sporotrichosis
2
: of or resembling a starfish
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Other Words from asteroid
Noun
asteroidal
\ ˌas-tə-ˈrȯi-dᵊl
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adjective
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adjective
Examples of asteroid in a Sentence
Noun
Most asteroids are found between Mars and Jupiter.Recent Examples on the Web: Noun
Like an asteroid, that huge glow shot across the sky and quickly faded -- or at least, came back down to Earth. — Brian Lowry, CNN, "How 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' changed the primetime TV rulebook," 14 Aug. 2019 And as the world grapples with the fallout from climate change, the prospect of nuclear war, and even killer asteroids, creating a backup of human civilization doesn’t sound like such a bad idea after all. — Daniel Oberhaus, WIRED, "A Crashed Israeli Lunar Lander Spilled Tardigrades on the Moon," 5 Aug. 2019 The asteroid, about the size of a large boulder, only became visible a few days ago. — CBS News, ""City killer" asteroid misses Earth – and scientists had no idea," 29 July 2019 Thayer is interested in tracking and checking out asteroids, in part to keep them from hitting Earth. — Judith Kohler, The Denver Post, "Coloradans recall their roles in mankind’s “greatest adventure” 50 years after Apollo 11 landing," 20 July 2019 The robotic spacecraft will take 4½ years to reach the asteroid, which is located between Mars and Jupiter. — Brieanna J. Frank, azcentral, "NASA admin: ASU, UA 'leading the world' in training next generation of space scientists," 17 July 2019 Black holes, white dwarfs, asteroids, planets, moons, just to name a few. — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, "They're Not Moons. They're Not Planets. They're Ploonets.," 10 July 2019 With a light sail, a spacecraft could go to the moon, to asteroids, to Jupiter—anywhere the wind of light blows, using no fuel at all. — Amy Thompson, Smithsonian, "LightSail 2 Launches to Space to Soar on the Power of Sunshine," 25 June 2019 An even greater number, 68 percent, attached such importance to monitoring asteroids, comets, or other objects from space that could strike the planet. — Eric Berger, Ars Technica, "Americans aren’t interested in the Moon and Mars—and that’s understandable," 20 June 2019Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective
The geologist Gerta Keller, whose remarkable career runs from waitress to Princeton professor, contends that eruptions of these volcanoes began the dinosaur die-off long before the asteroid impact. — David Von Drehle, Twin Cities, "David Von Drehle: Digging into our planet’s history," 22 July 2019 The rover's laser spectrometer device detected the methane while the car-size rover was parked at the Teal Ridge site within Gale Crater, a 96-mile-wide dry lake bed that was created millions of years ago by an asteroid impact. — David Freeman, NBC News, "NASA's Curiosity Mars rover detects 'unusually high' levels of methane," 24 June 2019 The bright craters dotting the moon’s near side, though, are the result of more recent asteroid impacts. — Korey Haynes, Discover Magazine, "Earth's Moon: The Basics of its Origin, Evolution and Exploration," 12 June 2019 At a conference in April, scientists from around the world were asked how to respond to a make-believe scenario in which an asteroid big enough to destroy a major city might be on track to strike the Earth in eight years. — CBS News, ""City killer" asteroid misses Earth – and scientists had no idea," 29 July 2019 Launched in 2014, the vehicle has been hovering around an asteroid named Ryugu since arriving at the object in June 2018. — Loren Grush, The Verge, "Japanese spacecraft grabs second asteroid sample near blasted crater," 11 July 2019 Japan's space agency has successfully landed rovers on the asteroid Ryugu as part of research into the formation of the solar system, while India is on the verge of becoming the fourth country to land a rover on the moon. — Ben Westcott, CNN, "50 years after US moon landing, China is catching up in the space race," 19 July 2019 Japan's Hayabusa2 successfully completed its second touchdown on the asteroid Ryugu and probably captured material from its interior that was exposed by firing a projectile into the asteroid earlier this year. — Dennis Normile, Science | AAAS, "In a first, a Japanese spacecraft appears to have collected samples from inside an asteroid," 11 July 2019 The program has included the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, the Juno mission to Jupiter and OSIRIS-REx mission to the asteroid Bennu. — Richard Tribou, orlandosentinel.com, "NASA to send flying drone Dragonfly to Saturn moon Titan," 27 June 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'asteroid.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for asteroid
asteroid
noun
English Language Learners Definition of asteroid
: any one of thousands of small planets that circle around the sun
See the full definition for asteroid in the English Language Learners Dictionary
asteroid
noun
as·ter·oid
| \ ˈa-stə-ˌrȯid
\
\
Kids Definition of asteroid
: one of thousands of rocky objects that move in orbits mostly between those of Mars and Jupiter and have diameters from a fraction of a mile to nearly 500 miles (800 kilometers)
asteroid
adjective
as·ter·oid
| \ ˈas-tə-ˌrȯid
\
\
Medical Definition of asteroid
: resembling a star
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