Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Comet

Definition: Comet

Comet

Noun

1. (astronomy) a relatively small extraterrestrial body consisting of a frozen mass that travels around the sun in a highly elliptical orbit.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "comet" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)

Etymology: Comet \Com"et\, noun. [Latin expression cometes, cometa, from the Greek expression comet, prop. long-haired, from to wear long hair, from hair, akin to Latin coma: compare to the French expression com[`e]te.]. (Websters 1913)


Specialty Definition: Comet

DomainDefinition

Aerospace

A luminous member of the solar system composed of a head, or coma, and often with a spectacular gaseous trail extending a great distance from the head.The orbits of comets are highly elliptical. (references)

Astronomy

A chunk of frozen gasses, ice, and rocky debris that orbits the Sun. A comet nucleus is about the size of a mountain on earth. When a comet nears the Sun, heat vaporizes the icy material producing a cloud of gaseous material surrounding the nucleus, called a coma. As the nucleus begins to disintegrate, it also produces a trail of dust or dust tail in its orbital path and a gas or ion tail pointing away from the Sun. Comet comas can extend up to a million miles from the nucleus and comet tails can be millions of miles long. There are thought to be literally trillions of comets in our solar system out past Neptune and Pluto, but only once per decade or so does one become near and bright enough to see easily without binoculars or a telescope. (references)

Dream Interpretation

To dream of this heavenly awe-inspiring object sailing through the skies, you will have trials of an unexpected nature to beset you, but by bravely combating these foes you will rise above the mediocre in life to heights of fame.
For a young person, this dream portends bereavement and sorrow. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted ....

Geography

Comets. Small bodies that are members of the solar system and move in very elongated orbits. Source: European Union. (references)

Space

A body of dust, frozen water and gases falling sunward from the outer regions of the solar system. Comets become visible when they approach the Sun, as sunlight evaporates their upper layers and creates long tails of dust and ions. Comets are believed to be remnants of the formation of the solar system; some of them (like Halley's comet) are diverted by the attraction of planets into orbits of relatively short periods around the Sun. (references)
 A small body of ice and dust which orbits the Sun. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Abbreviations & Acronyms: Comet

The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted.
EntrySourceExpressionField

COMET

EnglishCommittee for Middle East TradeBusiness
CONTOUREnglishComet Nucleus TourTransportation

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Top     

Synonyms within Context: Comet

ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).

Traveler

Runner, courier; Mercury, Iris, Ariel, comet.

World

Sun, orb of day, Apollo, Phoebus; photosphere, chromosphere; solar system; planet, planetoid; comet; satellite, moon, orb of night, Diana, silver-footed queen; aerolite, meteor; planetary ring; falling star, shooting star; meteorite, uranolite.

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Top     

Crosswords: Comet

English words defined with "comet": aphelion, atmospherecoma, Cometarium, cometary, cometicEdmond Halley, Edmund HalleyHalleyNormal place, nucleusPerigeum, perihelion, Perihelium, Periodic comet, Perseid. (references)
Specialty definitions using "comet": comet family, comet hunter, comet orbit, Comet Wine, CRAFfamily of comets, fedayeenJulium Sidus. (references)
Etymologies containing "comet": Xiphias. (references)

Top     

Modern Usage: Comet

DomainUsage

Screenplays

Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen! (Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town; writing credit: Romeo Muller)

Shakobini Comet! Leather Queen Follow-Up! (Project A-Ko Versus Battle 2: Blue Side; writing credit: Yuji Kawahara; Katsuhiko Nishijima)

Tongue Twisters

Comet cuddles cute Christmas kittens carefully. (references; author: unknown)

Movie/TV Titles

Comet of Laughter Lands on Earth (1952)

Blonde Comet (1941)

Comet Over Broadway (1938)

The Riding Comet (1925)

Love Comet (1916)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Commercial Usage: Comet

DomainTitle

References

  • Comet Savings & Finance: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference)

    (more reference examples)

  

Books

  • Arthur and the Comet Crisis (reference)

  • Comet (reference)

  • Comet and Asteroid Impact Hazards on a Populated Earth: Computer Modeling (reference)

  • Comet in Moominland (reference)

  • Comet of Nostradamus: August 2004- Impact! (reference)

    (more book examples)

  

Periodicals

  

Theater & Movies

  • Star Blazers - Comet Empire (Parts 1-6) (reference)

    (more DVD examples; more video examples)

  

High Tech

  

Consumer Goods

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Image Slideshow: Comet

Photos:
Comet

More pictures...

Illustrations:
Comet

More pictures...

Computer Images:
Comet

More pictures...

Top     

Photo Album: Comet

ThumbnailDescription & CreditThumbnailDescription & Credit

Astronomers analyzing debris from a comet that broke apart last summer spied pieces as small ... Credit: NASA.

Completing an unprecedented yearlong study of Comet Hale-Bopp with two NASA observatories, ... Credit: NASA.

In the Jupiter campaign, scientists wanted to see how the comet collisions affected the Jovian ... Credit: NASA.

Lackluster comet LINEAR (C/1999 S4) unexpectedly threw astronomers a curve. Using the Hubble ... Credit: NASA.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided the most detailed look yet at the comet hurtling ... Credit: NASA.

Comet C/Hale-Bopp as taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA.

Comet P/Halley as taken March 8, 1986 by W. Liller, Easter Island, part of the International Halley Watch (IHW) Large Scale Phenomena Network. Credit: NASA.

Comet C/Hyakutake as taken with the Hubble Space Telescope when the comet passed at a distance of 9.3 million miles (14.9 million km) from Earth (03/25/96). Credit: NASA.

Photograph taken of Comet P/Kohoutek from Skylab. (12/21/73). Credit: NASA.

Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 as taken with the Wide-Field/Planetary Camera on the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Top     

Familiar Quotations: Comet

AuthorQuotation

Ann Landers

Sensual pleasures have the fleeting brilliance of a comet; a happy marriage has the tranquillity of a lovely sunset.

Desiderius Erasmus

[Only by] the good influence of our conduct may we bring salvation in human affairs; or like a fatal comet we may bring destruction in our train.

Sir Philip Sidney

With a tale, for sooth, he comet unto you; with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney corner.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Top     

Use in Literature: Comet

TitleAuthorQuote

Les Miserables

Hugo, Victor

Brutus strikes him with a knife, and God with a comet.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Top     

Non-Fiction Usage: Comet

SubjectTopicQuote

Business

In 1993, the company acquired a controlling stake in the Russian chemical plant Novomoskovskbytkhim in the Tula region which currently produces a number of detergent and hygienic products, including Tide and Myth washing powders, Always women's protection pads, Fairy dishwashing liquid, Comet cleaning and disinfectant powder, etc. So far, the company has not invested in local production of hair, oral care and other cosmetic lines. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Top     

Usage Frequency: Comet

"Comet" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 87.50% of the time. "Comet" is used about 160 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Noun (singular)87.5%14026,789
Noun (proper)11.88%1980,337
Noun (common)0.63%1339,140
                    Total100.00%160N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

Top     

Usage in Company Names: Comet

CountryName
South Korea

Comet Savings & Finance

 (more examples...)

Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.

Top     

Expression: Comet

Expressions using "comet": Biela's comet Comet Assay comet family comet finder comet group comet hunter comet nucleus comet orbit comet seeker fresh comet head of the comet new comet periodic comet Tail of a comet. Additional references.

Hyphenated Usage

Beginning with "comet": Comet- seeker, comet-blaze, Comet-finder, comet-hunter, comet-like.

Ending with "comet": Woolworth-to-comet.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Comet

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

comet

2,001

bill haley and the comet

38

comet cursor

1,853

comet hale bopp

35

houston comet

283

comet dr

34

comet search

281

comet torque converter

33

daily comet

262

comet clutches

33

halleys comet

198

comet industry

33

silver comet trail

132

comet electrical store

33

mercury comet

115

comet store

32

comet search web

111

comet cleaners

31

comet uk

108

1964 comet mercury

29

comet toolbar

69

comet fish

27

comet cursor.com

66

comet pump

26

night of the comet

62

1965 comet mercury

25

comet picture

60

comet system

24

haleys comet

59

silver comet

24

comet electrical

58

comet cusor

22

comet antenna

51

download comet cursor

21

comet gold fish

51

comet engine search

21

comet clutch

41

comet kart sales

21

comet halley

40

joe rocket lady comet gloves

21
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Modern Translation: Comet

Language Translations for "comet"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Albanian

  

kometë. (various references)

   

Arabic 

  

‏نجم ذو ذنب, ‏المذنب نجم. (various references)

   

Basque

  

kometa. (various references)

   

Bulgarian 

  

комета. (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

彗星 . (various references)

   

Czech

  

kometa. (various references)

   

Danish

  

komethale (comet tail). (various references)

   

Dutch

  

staartster, komeet. (various references)

   

Esperanto

  

kometo. (various references)

   

Faeroese

  

halastjørna. (various references)

   

Farsi 

  

ستاره دنباله دار. (various references)

   

Finnish

  

pyrstötähti. (various references)

   

French

  

comète (coma). (various references)

   

Frisian

  

sturtstjer. (various references)

   

German

  

komet (meteor), schweifstern. (various references)

   

Greek 

  

κομήτησ. (various references)

   

Hebrew 

  

שביט, כוכב שביט. (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

üstökös (blazing star, meteor). (various references)

   

Indonesian

  

bintang berekor. (various references)

   

Italian

  

cometa (coma, rainbow runner). (various references)

   

Japanese Kanji 

  

'星 , 彗星 , コミュニケーション科学基礎 "究所 (choral, collaboration, collaborative, collaborator, collage, collagen, collie, column, columnist, COM, COMECON, comedian, comedy, Cominform, comment, commentator, comment-out, committee, common, common carrier, common language, common sense, Commonwealth Day, communicate, Communication Science Laboratories, communications intelligence, communications satellite, communicator, communism, communist, Communist Information Bureau, community, community care, community center, community college, community media, community paper, community school, community sports, computer output microfilm system, comsat, corrida, corundum, Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, Komintern, Komsomol, Korea, operator in a telemarketing business, stand-alone feature article framed by a box), 帚星 . (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

すいせい (aquatic, aquatic life, aqueous, decay, decline, downward tendency, living in the water, Mercury, strength of a river current, this decadent world, water-based), ほうきぼし, コメット . (various references)

   

Korean 

  

혜성. (various references)

   

Manx

  

rollage arbyllagh. (various references)

   

Occitan

  

cometa. (various references)

   

Papiamen

  

kometa. (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

ometcay

   

Portuguese

  

cometa. (various references)

   

Romanian

  

cometã (quill). (various references)

   

Russian 

  

комета. (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

zvezda repatica, repatica, kometa. (various references)

   

Spanish

  

cometa (box kite, kite). (various references)

   

Swedish

  

komet. (various references)

   

Turkish

  

kuyrukluyıldız, kuyruklu yildiz. (various references)

   

Ukrainian

  

комета (wanderer). (various references)

   

Welsh

  

comed. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Top     

Ancestral Language Translations: Comet

LanguagePeriodTranslations
Latin500 BCE-Modern

cometes. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Top     

Derivations & Misspellings: Comet

Derivations

Words beginning with "comet": cometary, cometh, comether, comethers, cometic, comets. (additional references)

Words containing "comet": viscometer, viscometers, viscometric, viscometries, viscometry. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Comet" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: cajet, camat, camet, Cemat, Cmot, cmt, Cmte, cobet, coet, coget, coiet, coiment, coket, comae, comag, comata, comdef, comed, comeete, comeh, comen, coment, comeo, comert, comest, comete, comette, comex, comey, comfect, comish, comit, comitt, commem, commet, Commey, comnet, comnt, comont, comot, compent, compet, comt, comte, Comtec, Comtech, Comtek, comtel, Comten, conat, conert, conet, conit, cooet, coonet, corment, Cormet, coset, cowet, Crombet, domet, Domett, fomet, Kamet, Komech, komet, Lomet, octem, omet, pomet. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Top     

Rhyming with "Comet"

# of Phoneme MatchesPronunciationWord(s) rhyming with "comet" (pronounced kÄ"mut)
4-Ä" m u tvomit.
3-m u tanimate, approximate, climate, consummate, estimate, gamut, guesstimate, helmet, hermit, illegitimate, inanimate, intimate, legitimate, limit, microclimate, plummet, proximate, summit, ultimate.

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Top     

Anagrams: Comet

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Direct Anagrams: comte.

Words within the letters "c-e-m-o-t"

-1 letter: come, cote, mote, tome.

-2 letters: cot, met, moc, mot, toe, tom.

-3 letters: em, et, me, mo, oe, om, to.

 Words containing the letters "c-e-m-o-t"
 

+1 letter: coempt, comate, cometh, comets, comtes.

 

+2 letters: centimo, coempts, comates, cometic, comment, commute, compete, compote, compted, compute, contemn, costume, demotic, meiotic, metopic, mortice, outcome, telomic, tonemic, totemic, toxemic, vicomte.

 

+3 letters: ammocete, azotemic, celomata, centimos, chowtime, chromate, chromite, coempted, coinmate, comatose, combated, combater, cometary, comether, comfiest, comities, comments, commuted, commuter, commutes, competed, competes, compleat, complect, complete, compotes, computed, computer, computes, contemns, contempt, copemate, cosmetic, costumed, costumer, costumes, costumey, cremator, customer, democrat, demotics, document, domestic, ectoderm, ectomere, epitomic, hecatomb, hemocyte, homeotic, intercom, locomote, mercapto, metazoic, meteoric, methodic, monocyte, morticed, mortices, moschate, mycetoma, myxocyte, outcomes, pentomic, recommit, semiotic, stockmen, toxaemic, trichome, vicomtes.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Top     



INDEX

1. Definition
2. Crosswords
3. Usage: Modern
4. Usage: Commercial
5. Images: Slideshow
6. Images: Photo Album
7. Quotations: Familiar
8. Quotations: Fiction
9. Quotations: Non-fiction
10. Usage Frequency
11. Names: Company Usage
12. Expressions
13. Expressions: Internet
14. Translations: Modern
15. Translations: Ancient
16. Abbreviations
17. Acronyms
18. Derivations
19. Rhymes
20. Anagrams
21. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.