Comet : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: Comet	by the DICT Development Group
2 results for Comet
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
comet n (astronomy) a relatively small extraterrestrial body consisting of a frozen mass that travels around the sun in a highly elliptical orbit
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Comet \Com"et\, n. [L. cometes, cometa, from Gr. [?] comet, prop. long-haired, fr. [?] to wear long hair, fr. [?] hair, akin to L. coma: cf. F. com[8a]te.] (Astron.) A member of the solar system which usually moves in an elongated orbit, approaching very near to the sun in its perihelion, and receding to a very great distance from it at its aphelion. A comet commonly consists of three parts: the nucleus, the envelope, or coma, and the tail; but one or more of these parts is frequently wanting. See Illustration in Appendix.