Meaning & use
meteor
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A piece of rock or debris from space that burns brightly as it enters Earth's atmosphere.
Grammar: Countable: one meteor, two meteors. The rock in space is a meteoroid; if it lands, it is a meteorite.
Patterns
- a meteor shower
- a meteor streaks across the sky
- a meteor hits the ground
We stayed up late to watch the meteor shower.
A bright meteor flashed across the sky and disappeared.
Scientists track meteors to learn about the solar system.
Word forms
| plural | meteors |
|---|
Common combinations
- meteor shower
- The Perseid meteor shower happens every August.
- meteor strike
- The crater was formed by a meteor strike long ago.
- meteorite
- A meteorite landed in the desert and was collected by scientists.
- meteoroid
- A meteoroid is a small rocky body traveling through space.
Synonyms and how they differ
- shooting star
- The everyday name for a meteor; it is not a star at all, just burning rock.
- falling star
- A poetic or old-fashioned way to say meteor.
Word family
Commonly confused: meteor or meteorite? meteor or meteorology?
meteor vs meteorite
A meteor burns up in the sky; a meteorite is the piece that actually lands on the ground.
meteor vs meteorology
Meteorology is the study of weather, not of meteors.
Practice
Choose the correct word: 'We saw a bright ___ streak across the night sky.'
Choose one answer.
A meteor is the streak of light in the sky. A meteorite is a rock that has landed, meteorology is weather science, and a meteoroid is a body still in space.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “meteor”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.