ASTRONAUT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does astronaut mean? 

• ASTRONAUT (noun)
  The noun ASTRONAUT has 1 sense:

1. a person trained to travel in a spacecraft

  Familiarity information: ASTRONAUT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ASTRONAUT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person trained to travel in a spacecraft

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

astronaut; cosmonaut; spaceman

Context example:

the Russians called their astronauts cosmonauts

Hypernyms ("astronaut" is a kind of...):

traveler; traveller (a person who changes location)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "astronaut"):

spacewalker (an astronaut who is active outside a spacecraft in outer space)

Instance hyponyms:

Armstrong; Neil Armstrong (United States astronaut; the first man to set foot on the Moon (July 20, 1969) (1930-))

Gagarin; Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Yuri Gagarin (Soviet cosmonaut who in 1961 was the first person to travel in space (1934-1968))

Glenn; John Glenn; John Herschel Glenn Jr. (made the first orbital rocket-powered flight by a United States astronaut in 1962; later in United States Senate (1921-))

Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr.; Alan Shepard; Shepard (astronaut who made the first United States' suborbital rocket-powered flight in 1961 (1923-1998))

Tereshkova; Valentina Tereshkova; Valentina Vladmirovna Tereshkova (Soviet cosmonaut who was the first woman in space (born in 1937))

Derivation:

astronautic; astronautical (of or belonging to astronauts or the science of astronautics)

 Context examples 

When gravity is greatly reduced—as in spaceflight—we no longer use our muscles to resist the usual pull of a planetary mass, and, without additional exercise astronauts lose both bone and muscle.

(Roundworms have the Right Stuff, NASA)

It is predicted that an astronaut walking on the red soil of the planet could look up to see the southern night sky glow blue, with red and green hues.

(Blue Aurorae in Mars’ Sky Visible to the Naked Eye, NASA)

The idea would be to have the astronauts control robots on the Martian surface from the moons of Mars, without the considerable time delay faced by Earth-based operators.

(Solar Eruptions Could Electrify Martian Moons, NASA)

Dust storms also will present challenges for astronauts on the Red Planet.

(Study Predicts Next Global Dust Storm on Mars, NASA)

This is the kind of information that needs to be well understood to better protect astronauts on the Moon from the effects of radiation.

(NASA Mission Reveals Origins of Moon's 'Sunburn', NASA)

By and large, space weather — which affects the region of near-Earth space where astronauts and satellites travel — is typically driven by external factors.

(Space Weather Events Linked to Human Activity, NASA)

Transforming the inhospitable Martian environment into a place astronauts could explore without life support is not possible without technology well beyond today’s capabilities.

(Mars Terraforming Not Possible Using Present-Day Technology, NASA)

The findings have implications for understanding and better forecasting the arrival of energetic electrons from space, which can damage satellites and threaten the health of space-walking astronauts.

(Six-decade-old space mystery solved with shoebox-sized satellite called a CubeSat, National Science Foundation)

While there are lots of places on Mars scientists would like to visit, few would make practical landing sites for astronauts.

(NASA's Treasure Map for Water Ice on Mars, NASA)

SpaceX is a private company that is expected to begin transporting U.S. astronauts into space next year.

(SpaceX Completes Successful Rocket Launch, VOA News)