: a celestial body that appears as a fuzzy head usually surrounding a bright nucleus, that has a usually highly eccentric orbit, that consists primarily of ice and dust, and that often develops one or more long tails when near the sun
Examples of comet in a Sentence
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Here’s the list of full moons remaining in 2025, according to the Farmers’ Almanac:
Meteor shower events
Meteor showers occur regularly throughout the year as Earth passes through the trails of debris left by comets.
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Kameryn Griesser, CNN Money, 12 Apr. 2025
After the comet reaches perihelion, it will only be seen from the Southern Hemisphere.
—Skyler Caruso, People.com, 8 Apr. 2025
But Willa is more interested in the heavens, especially the coming of Halley’s comet.
—Mary Ann Grossmann, Twin Cities, 6 Apr. 2025
The mission's accomplishments include discovering evidence of galactic mergers, identifying new star clusters, tracking hundreds of thousands of asteroids and comets, and helping discover exoplanets and black holes.
—Julian Dossett, Space.com, 27 Mar. 2025
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Kameryn Griesser, CNN Money, 12 Apr. 2025
After the comet reaches perihelion, it will only be seen from the Southern Hemisphere.
—Skyler Caruso, People.com, 8 Apr. 2025
But Willa is more interested in the heavens, especially the coming of Halley’s comet.
—Mary Ann Grossmann, Twin Cities, 6 Apr. 2025
The mission's accomplishments include discovering evidence of galactic mergers, identifying new star clusters, tracking hundreds of thousands of asteroids and comets, and helping discover exoplanets and black holes.
—Julian Dossett, Space.com, 27 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for comet
Cite this Entry
“Comet.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comet. Accessed 24 Apr. 2025.
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comet
noun
com·et
ˈkäm-ət 
: a bright heavenly body that develops a cloudy tail as it moves closer to the sun in its orbit
Etymology
Old English cometa "comet," from Latin cometa (same meaning), from Greek komētēs, literally, "long-haired," derived from komē "hair" — related to coma entry 2
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