astronaut
572
3.3
- noun
- /ˈæstrəˌnɔt/
:
astronauta
- Who was the first British astronaut in space?
- astronaut in space
- NASA astronauts
- space shuttle astronauts
You realize that we are astronauts right now.
- You realize that we are astronauts right now.
- We were trained like astronauts for three months.
- Who was the first British astronaut in space?
- So that's what we devote our lives to as astronauts.
- Question for astronauts, where your poo poo go?
- And I'm like, no, like astronauts are unbelievably professional, right?
Examples
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The astronaut trained for years before their first mission to space.
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So we have two astronauts aboard, Bob and Doug.
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So there was an astronaut from another country.
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Just weeks later, the United States launched its first astronaut, Alan Shepherd.
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This year's Chief Marshall is a NASA astronaut and an engineer.
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NASA used the tank for astronaut pre flight space training.
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We were trained like astronauts for three months.
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Last week, the president called the shuttle astronauts from up there.
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Moving with extreme care and precision, the astronauts accomplished all of the tasks asked of them.
Academic text (1994) -
Three successive crews of astronauts visited Skylab for periods of 1 to 3 months each.
Academic text (1991)
Synonyms
18
7.4
A person from Russia or the former Soviet Union trained to travel and work in space, like an astronaut
14
4.3
A person who travels and works in space on a spacecraft
Compounds
An idea that intelligent aliens visited Earth long ago and helped early humans
How Historic
Surface Forms
Morphology
astronaut = astro + naut
The word is built from classical combining forms meaning 'star' and 'sailor', but these are not productive standalone English morphemes for most learners, so the meaning is not easily inferred.
Etymology
The word astronaut comes from Greek parts astro- meaning 'star' and -naut meaning 'sailor', so it literally means 'star sailor'. That's why an astronaut is a person trained to travel and work in a spaceship.