astronaut
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of astronaut
1925–30; astro- + (aero)naut, probably via French astronaute; see astronautical
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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.
China also plans to welcome its first foreign astronaut, from Pakistan, aboard the Tiangong station by the end of this year.
From Barron's • May 24, 2026
I was like an astronaut returning to Earth, getting reacquainted with my own muscles.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 21, 2026
Ruth Davies, founder of floral design studio All for Love London, is behind one of the festival's standout installations: a four-metre astronaut and a six-metre moon on the King's Road.
From BBC • May 20, 2026
Glover, who now lives in Texas near NASA’s Johnson Space Center, is focused on bringing that SoCal sensibility and invaluable experience piloting the Orion capsule to the agency’s astronaut training program.
From Los Angeles Times • May 20, 2026
For a future astronomer and astronaut like myself, that day had been out-of-this-world awesome.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
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.
