Meaning & use
comet
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountabletechnical
A small body of ice, rock and dust that travels around the sun and grows a bright glowing tail when it passes close to it.
Grammar: Countable and often used with a name: a bright comet, Halley's Comet.
Patterns
- a comet's tail
- a comet passes something
- a comet orbits something
Halley's Comet returns about every seventy-six years.
We woke early to watch the comet cross the sky.
The comet's tail pointed away from the sun.
Word forms
| plural | comets |
|---|
Common combinations
- Halley's Comet
- Halley's Comet last appeared in 1986.
- comet's tail
- A comet's tail can stretch for millions of miles.
- comet impact
- A comet impact may have brought water to early Earth.
- spot a comet
- Amateur astronomers sometimes spot a comet before professionals do.
- like a comet
- The singer streaked across the music scene like a comet.
Synonyms and how they differ
- asteroid
- An asteroid is a rocky body, usually in the belt between Mars and Jupiter, while a comet is mostly ice and grows a tail near the sun.
- meteor
- A meteor is the streak of light made when space rock burns up in our atmosphere, whereas a comet is a distant object in orbit.
- shooting star
- Shooting star is a popular name for a meteor and is not a comet.
Word family
- cometary adjective
- Relating to comets
- comet-like adjective
- Resembling a comet, often because of a streak or tail
- meteor noun
- A streak of light caused by space debris in the air
Commonly confused: comet or meteor? comet or asteroid?
comet vs meteor
A meteor is a short flash in the sky; a comet is a long-lasting object far away, visible for days or weeks.
comet vs asteroid
An asteroid has no glowing tail and is usually made of rock or metal.
Practice
A glowing tail developing as an object approaches the sun is a typical feature of a ____.
Choose one answer.
Comets heat up near the sun and release gas and dust that form a tail. Planets and moons do not grow tails, and a star produces its own light.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “comet”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.