COMET
What does "COMET" mean?
An icy body that releases gas and dust, forming a glowing head and tail when near the Sun.
Meanings
- A small icy solar-system body that develops a bright coma and tail as it nears the Sun. The comet won't return to our skies for another seventy years.
Did you know?
- Greeks called a comet 'kometes' - 'the long-haired one' - because its glowing tail looked like hair streaming behind a head.
- Edmond Halley predicted that the comet now bearing his name would return about every 76 years; it reappeared in 1758, after his death, exactly as he'd calculated.
Word origin
From Greek 'kometes' (long-haired), from 'kome' (hair), because a comet's tail looked like streaming hair; into Latin 'cometa,' then English.
Remember it
A COMET 'comes' and goes - and its Greek name means 'long-haired,' for the streaming tail it trails.
A little poem
A long-haired traveler
burns toward the Sun once a life -
then the dark again.
haiku
Wordplay
- Why did the comet break up with the planet? It said it just needed some space, then left for seventy years.
What it teaches
Some arrivals are worth a lifetime's wait - and you only get the one chance to look up.
Quick facts
What does COMET mean?
An icy body that releases gas and dust, forming a glowing head and tail when near the Sun.
Is COMET a valid word?
Yes — COMET is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is COMET?
COMET has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does COMET come from?
From Greek 'kometes' (long-haired), from 'kome' (hair), because a comet's tail looked like streaming hair; into Latin 'cometa,' then English.
What can COMET teach us?
Some arrivals are worth a lifetime's wait - and you only get the one chance to look up.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.