meteorite

American  

[mee-tee-uh-rahyt] / ˈmi ti əˌraɪt /

noun

• meteorites
  plural

1. a mass of stone or metal that has reached the earth from outer space; a fallen meteoroid.

2. a meteoroid.

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meteorite British  

/ ˈmiːtɪəˌraɪt /

noun

1. a rocklike object consisting of the remains of a meteoroid that has fallen on earth. It may be stony (chondrite), iron, or stony iron (pallasite) See chondrite

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meteorite Scientific  

/ mē′tē-ə-rīt′ /

1. A meteor that reaches the Earth's surface because it has not been burned up by friction with the atmosphere. Meteorites are believed to be fragments of comets and asteroids.

2. ◆ Meteorites that consist mostly of silicates are called stony meteorites and are classified as either chondrites or achondrites.

3. ◆ Meteorites that consist mostly of iron are called iron meteorites.

4. ◆ Meteorites that consist of a mixture of silicates and iron are called stony-iron meteorites.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• meteorital
  adjective
• meteoritic
  adjective
• meteoritical
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• meteorites
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of meteorite

First recorded in 1815–25; meteor + -ite ¹

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Explanation

A meteorite is a rock that falls to earth after a brilliant meteor has passed through the earth's atmosphere. If you've ever seen a shooting star at night, you can call what you're watching zip brightly across the sky a meteor. If that same meteor makes it through the atmosphere of the earth, its fire burns out and it becomes a meteorite, or a random piece of space debris that may have originally come from an asteroid or comet. The Greek root for both meteor and meteorite is ta meteora, "things in heaven above."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

meteorite meteorites

Their chemical signatures also differ substantially from those of other known asteroids, meteorite groups, and planets.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2026

There are seagull puppets, a tandem bicycle, an oil stain in the shape of a rabbit, a meteorite.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

Grizedale Observatory near Ambleside, Cumbria, opened in May 2024, offering public access to telescopes, a planetarium and meteorite laboratory, as well as staging a dark skies festival and other events.

From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026

Since its discovery, the meteorite has been studied extensively because of its unusually primitive composition.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 25, 2026

On 13 September 1768 a large meteorite, weighing seven and a half pounds, fell at Lucé, Pays de la Loire.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

"In past falls, we noticed that meteorites larger than about 20g tended to be scattered wider and many came from close to the surface of the original space rock, which must have been its backside."

From Science Daily ● Oct. 29, 2026

Instead, the researchers propose that the material that became Bennu, Ryugu, and CI meteorites accumulated near a boundary known as the water-ice line.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2026

It also uncovered a close chemical relationship between Bennu, the asteroid Ryugu, and a rare group of primitive meteorites known as CI meteorites.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2026

Martian meteorites are extremely rare, but like all space rocks that fall to our planet, they become contaminated as soon as they get here, mixing with the air, dust, soil and water.

From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2026

Chemical reactions like those in our laboratory vessels may be responsible for the organic matter in interstellar space and the amino acids found in meteorites.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

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