meteor

Definitions

Straight from Greek meteōron, 'a thing high in the air' (meta- 'high up' + a form of aeirein 'to lift'). To the Greeks this covered any sky event; in English it narrowed to the one most dramatic 'thing in the air' — the flash of a space rock burning up.

Why It Means This

A meteor is not the rock itself but the light — the glowing trail you see when a fragment from space slams into the atmosphere and burns. Three words mark three stages: a meteoroid is the rock in space, a meteor is the flash as it burns, and a meteorite is what reaches the ground.

Common Collocations

• 1.meteor shower流星雨
• 2.a bright meteor明亮的流星
• 3.watch meteors观看流星
• 4.meteor streaks across the sky流星划过天空

Example Sentences

• 1.

  We lay on the grass and watched meteors streak across the night sky.

• 2.

  A bright meteor flashed overhead and was gone in an instant.

• 3.

  The annual meteor shower peaks in mid-August every year.

Easily Confused

meteor vs meteorite vs comet — A meteor is the flash of light. A meteorite is the rock that survives and lands. A comet is a different object entirely: an icy body with a long glowing tail that orbits the sun over months. A meteor is gone in a second; a comet hangs in the sky for nights.