astronaut
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
Nasa astronaut Anil Menon and cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina lifted off aboard a Soyuz spacecraft on Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
Retired astronaut Barbara Morgan, who flew aboard Endeavour in 2007, said the shuttle will inspire space enthusiasts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026
Rep. Jasmine Crockett and former astronaut Terry Virts in their unsuccessful Senate runs.
From Salon ● Jun. 17, 2026
Eight years later, the Dragon spacecraft carried its first astronaut to the ISS, beating other aerospace companies like Boeing to becoming the main American transport to the space station.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
Briana is dressed like the astronaut Sally Ride and has a jumpsuit covered with homemade patches that say NASA.
From "Amina's Song" by Hena Khan
I like baseball, but it’s not like these guys are astronauts, just back from the moon.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
India plans to send astronauts into space next year, an orbiter to Venus by 2028 and build its own space station by 2035.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
Through the International Space Station Program and the ISS National Lab, astronauts regularly capture images of Earth that support scientific research and are made freely available to researchers and the public.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026
Seven astronauts, including teacher Christa McAuliffe, died, which was cause for public mourning.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
Some of them even exceeded the performance of the male astronauts.
From "Women in Space" by Karen Bush Gibson
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.
