meteor

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a streak of light produced when a small piece of matter from space enters Earth's atmosphere and becomes intensely hot

   We saw a bright meteor cross the sky during the annual shower.

2. 2
   noun

   historically, any remarkable atmospheric phenomenon, such as lightning, a rainbow, or a shooting star

   Older scientific writers used meteor for many unusual sights in the atmosphere.

Via Middle French and Latin meteorum from Greek meteōron ('thing high in the air'), from meteōros ('raised, suspended, lofty'). Meteor once covered many atmospheric phenomena, which survives in meteorology; its ordinary modern astronomical sense is the visible streak, while the body in space is a meteoroid.

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