Vostok

American  

[vos-tok, vo-stok, vuh-stawk] / ˈvɒs tɒk, vɒˈstɒk, vʌˈstɔk /

noun

1. one of a series of Soviet spacecraft, carrying one cosmonaut, used to make the world's first manned spaceflights.

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Vostok British  

/ ˈvɒstɒk /

noun

1. any of six manned Soviet spacecraft made to orbit the earth. Vostok 1, launched in April 1961, carried Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space; Vostok 6 carried Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space

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Etymology

Origin of Vostok

First recorded in 1961, Vostok is from the Russian word Vostók literally, east

Example Sentences

His firm Baring Vostok financed tech companies such as Yandex, Russia’s answer to Google.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 26, 2025

Lake Vostok is roughly 34 million years old, but Bell is among the researchers who have suggested water circulated through the microbe-filled lake roughly every 50,000 years.

From Salon • Apr. 5, 2025

Vostok takes many evacuees to a low-slung maternity hospital in central Dnipro that was evacuated at the start of the war.

From Washington Post • Mar. 18, 2023

At Vostok in Antarctica, the mercury reached -17.7C, the warmest in the weather station's 65-year history.

From BBC • Jan. 10, 2023

Ten minutes after takeoff, Vostok blasted through the atmosphere and into space.

From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin