Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🪨 Rock changes 🪐 Normal movement 🏖️ Building outward
prograde

prograde

7.7
Moving in the same direction as a planet or star spins, like most planets
  • adjective
  • /ˈproʊɡreɪd/
  • Specialized
translation icon : progresivo
  • The planet Venus exhibits a prograde rotation.

Examples

  • Astronomers observed that the moon's prograde motion was consistent with the planet's rotation.

  • Most planets in our solar system have prograde orbits around the Sun.

  • The satellite was launched into a prograde trajectory to match Earth's rotation.

  • In astronomy, a prograde motion is typical for most planets.

  • The planet Venus rotates in a prograde direction, meaning it spins clockwise as viewed from above its north pole.

  • During our astronomy lesson, we learned that most planets exhibit prograde motion as they orbit the Sun.

  • As the spacecraft approached the giant planet, it adjusted its trajectory to maintain a prograde orbit around it.

Antonyms

retrograde
  • Specialized
1 8.9

Moving in the opposite direction to the usual orbit

Surface Forms

prograde positive

Morphology

prograde = grade (semi-transparent) = pro + grade

Formed by pro- + grade to indicate forward or normal direction, but the term is specialized in astronomy and may not be transparent to learners unfamiliar with technical usage.

Etymology

Prograde comes from the parts pro- 'forward' and grad 'step', the same root in grade and graduate. So when a planet or moon moves in the normal, forward direction it is making a 'forward step', which is why astronomers describe that motion as 'prograde'.