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:
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
Bresnik, a California native, graduated from The Citadel with a mathematics degree and joined NASA's astronaut corps in 2004.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 11, 2026
Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano will represent the European Space Agency as the voyage's pilot, becoming the first European to join one of the program's missions.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
Several American women had flown in space, but astronaut Eileen Collins was special to the Mercury 13.
From "Women in Space" by Karen Bush Gibson
I like baseball, but it’s not like these guys are astronauts, just back from the moon.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
These checks are intended to protect the Artemis III astronauts while they remain inside Orion during both docking tests.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 23, 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
If one of the Apollo 11 astronauts decides to go for a walk around the space capsule, he won’t hear a thing.
From "Okay for Now" by Gary D. Schmidt
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.
