rocket scientist
5
4.4
- noun
- /ˈrɑkɪt ˈsaɪəntɪst/
- Specialized
:
científico de cohetes
- And the rocket scientist Robert Goddard, he always said that what inspired him to do rocketry was reading Jules Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon" when he was a kid.
- German rocket scientists
- top rocket scientists
- rocket scientists working
So this is an exciting place from a rocket scientist's point of view.
- So this is an exciting place from a rocket scientist's point of view.
- We talk about all the rocket scientists we got, you know, put them into NASA and other programs.
- Here's Reed, one of our scishow space hosts, to tell the story of the first rocket scientist.
Examples
-
The rocket scientist designed a new type of propulsion system for future spacecraft.
-
So this is an exciting place from a rocket scientist's point of view.
-
Actually, she is a rocket scientist.
-
I am a rocket scientist.
Fiction book (1999) -
What's it like being a rocket scientist?
-
But until the 1970s, computers were used predominantly by rocket scientists and big universities.
Academic text (2009) -
Goddard was a pioneering rocket scientist who solved many of the early problems of rocketry.
Academic text (2004) -
Perhaps the man best placed to provide answers was NASA's top rocket scientist, Wernher von Braun.
-
Lisa always wanted to be a rocket scientist because she loved space exploration.
-
At the conference, a renowned rocket scientist spoke about the challenges of interplanetary travel.
Synonyms
∞
2.1
A person who studies science and does experiments to find new facts
729
3.2
A person who designs, builds and fixes machines or structures
6
5.5
A person who designs and tests aircraft and spacecraft
1
7.6
A person who designs, builds, or launches rockets
1
4.8
A person who designs, builds, and tests rockets
How Specialized
- Specialized
5
4.4
- Specialized
6
5.5
- Specialized
729
3.2
- Specialized
184
3.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
rocket + scientist
The literal meaning — a scientist who works on rockets — is directly compositional from 'rocket' + 'scientist', so learners will grasp that basic sense. However, the common idiomatic use (e.g. "you don't need to be a rocket scientist") extends this to mean 'very intelligent' or 'requires special expertise' in a metaphorical/ironic way, which is not fully predictable from the parts and may require exposure to the idiom.
Etymology
Rocket scientist names a person who designs and tests rockets and spacecraft, and because making rockets needs a lot of skill and science, the phrase means 'an engineer or expert who designs, builds, or tests rockets and spacecraft'.