sputnik
noun
any of a series of Soviet earth-orbiting satellites.
sputnik
American
[spoot-nik, spuht-, spoot-nyik]
/ ˈspʊt nɪk, ˈspʌt-, ˈsput njɪk /
noun
Sputnik
British
/ ˈspʊtnɪk, ˈspʌt- /
noun
Etymology
Origin of sputnik
1957; < Russian spútnik satellite, traveling companion, equivalent to s- together, with + put’ way, route + -nik agent suffix ( cf. -nik)
Vocabulary lists containing sputnik
2015 Spelling Bee - Words from Round 2
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The Vocabulary of Soviet-Era Nostalgia & Cold War Spy Words
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American History - Middle School
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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:
With his trademark delivery - unhurried and calm - he informed viewers of the first sputnik in space, and delivered the communiqués of the Communist Party.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2021
This guy's not as imposing as a sputnik, but just as many bulbs.
From Salon ● Mar. 14, 2021
All languages borrow words from other languages — Americans may recognize agitprop, sputnik, babushka or cosmonaut.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 25, 2017
It’s hard to remember, even for those who lived through it, what an enormous shock sputnik was.
From Slate ● Jun. 4, 2012
This is about 1,500 miles farther than any Soviet shots revealed to the public in the 2½-year period following the first sputnik.
From The Practical Values of Space Exploration Report of the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, Eighty-Sixth Congress, Second Session by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science and Astronautics.
Sputnik Planitia is a vast glacier made largely of frozen nitrogen and is bigger than Texas and Oklahoma combined.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026
Seattle’s Century 21 Exposition took place in the shadow of the Cold War, following the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial Earth satellite.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 16, 2026
DeepSeek's low-cost, high-performance R1 chatbot challenged assumptions of US dominance in what some have called the "Sputnik moment" for AI.
From Barron's ● Apr. 24, 2026
A big lesson since Sputnik launched the Space Age is that we are Earthlings to the core.
From Slate ● Dec. 9, 2025
So why couldn’t they build something like Sputnik too?
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
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