Voyager

American  

[voi-uh-jer] / ˈvɔɪ ə dʒər /

noun

1. one of a series of U.S. space probes that obtained scientific information while flying by the planets Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus.

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Voyager British  

/ ˈvɔɪədʒə /

noun

1. either of two US spacecraft that studied the outer solar system; Voyager 1 visited Jupiter (1979) and Saturn (1980), Voyager 2 visited Jupiter (1979) and Saturn (1981) and made the first flyby of Uranus (1986) and Neptune (1989)

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Explanation

A voyager is someone who goes on a long trip, especially if he travels in a ship. Historically, voyagers have often been explorers. A voyage is a long trip to a faraway land, and people who go on voyages are called voyagers. You're most likely to find this word describing sea travelers, like the explorers Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan. Because of its association with long, uncertain journeys, the word voyager has often been used for naming spaceships in science fiction and real life. Voyager has a Latin root, viaticum, which means "a journey."

Example Sentences

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 remain the only spacecraft far enough from Earth to collect this kind of data.

From Science Daily • May 4, 2026

Hermeus, a hypersonic aircraft company, recently announced its move to El Segundo, joining aerospace companies such as True Anomaly and Voyager Technologies that recently opened plants in Long Beach.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 28, 2026

Voyager listed via an initial public offering in June.

From Barron's • Apr. 16, 2026

The brand also started selling a cheaper version of the Pacifica, called the Voyager.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 4, 2026

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries you could travel from Holland to China in a year or two, the time it has taken Voyager to travel from Earth to Jupiter.’

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

Related Words

• commuter
• customer
• fare
• patron
• pilgrim
• rider
• tourist
• traveler