astronaut
Americannoun
-
astronauts
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of astronaut
1925–30; astro- + (aero)naut, probably via French astronaute; see astronautical
Compare meaning
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Explanation
An astronaut is someone who travels in space. While the term was once reserved for military-trained professionals, recent accessibility of space travel has seen the term astronaut now used to refer to anyone traveling in a spacecraft, including civilians. The word astronaut includes the root naut, from nautes, the Greek word for "sailor." This suffix can be used to create many travel-specific words. For example, the Argonauts were mythical Greek sailors on the ship named the Argo. Astronaut gets the astro from the Greek word astron, meaning "star," making an astronaut a “star sailor.” Russian space explorers took the title cosmonauts, with the cosmo part coming from the Greek for "universe," kosmos, so both have the same meaning.
Vocabulary lists containing astronaut
Occupations
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Elements of the Universe: Aster, Astro ("Star")
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astro, aster
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Adenot, 44, will be the second European woman to conduct a spacewalk, after Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti's mission in 2022.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
Bosco Ortega, 12, wants to be an astronaut when he grows up but has until now lived in Cairo, where the light pollution means few stars can be seen.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Winocour has often made films about women balancing their public-facing life with their private selves In 2019’s “Proxima,” Eva Green played an astronaut missing her young daughter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
Rep. Jasmine Crockett and former astronaut Terry Virts in their unsuccessful Senate runs.
From Salon ● Jun. 17, 2026
Two things sprang to mind as I watched one astronaut on the moon, and then another astronaut running, hopping, and frolicking on the moon.
From "Gone Crazy in Alabama" by Rita Williams-Garcia
Trump signed the order Friday at an event dedicated to the astronauts who flew around the moon and back earlier this year on NASA’s Artemis II mission.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
Nasa astronauts Anil Menon and Jessica Meir ventured outside the International Space Station for a spacewalk on Thursday to install mounting hardware.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
When these materials slam into Earth's magnetic shield, they can knock out satellites, threaten astronauts -- and create colourful auroras in the skies of northern and southern latitudes.
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
NASA's Artemis astronauts could also deploy the Lunar Environmental Monitoring Station in 2028.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 3, 2026
JimmyTrotter lifted up his hands and asked everyone to be quiet so we could hear Walter Cronkite and the astronauts.
From "Gone Crazy in Alabama" by Rita Williams-Garcia
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
