meteor swarm
- noun
- /ˈmiːtiɔr swɔrm/
- Specialized
:
enjambre de meteoros
- Astronomers are excited to study the upcoming meteor swarm expected to be visible in November.
Examples
-
As the Earth moved through a dense meteor swarm, bright streaks of light filled the night sky.
-
The ship was passing through a meteor swarm when its shields suddenly failed.
Fiction book (1991) -
Are you the man who warns the captain when we're approaching a meteor swarm?" "No, the ship does that automatically." "Then what do you do?" "Nothing, for the moment." "Are you a passenger, then?" she persisted.
Fiction book (1991) -
During the meteor shower, the meteor swarm created a dazzling display of shooting stars.
Synonyms
42
3.4
A large group of insects or people moving together without control
A group of small rocks in space that cause meteor showers when Earth passes through them
How Concentrated
- Specialized
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun-noun composition follows a straightforward 'X swarm' = a large moving group of X pattern: 'meteor' denotes a small space object and 'swarm' denotes a large moving group, so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it refers to a group of meteors traveling together. This is a literal, compositional usage (the sense of 'swarm' is generalizable to objects), making the expression transparent across languages and contexts.
Etymology
Meteor swarm paints the picture of many small meteors moving together like a bee swarm. Imagine a cloud of tiny space rocks entering our sky and making many 'shooting stars' at once, so the phrase means 'a group of meteoroids traveling together'.