cosmos

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noun cos·mos \ ˈkäz-məs , senses 1 & 2 also -ˌmōs , -ˌmäs \

Updated on: 9 Aug 2017

Definition of cosmos

1 a :universe 1

b (1) :an orderly harmonious systematic universe — compare chaos

(2) :order, harmony

2 :a complex orderly self-inclusive system

3 plural cosmos play \ˈkäz-məs, -məz\ also cosmoses play \ˈkäz-mə-səz\

[New Latin, genus name, from Greek kosmos]

:any of a genus (Cosmos) of tropical American composite herbs; especially :a widely cultivated tall annual (C. bipinnatus) with yellow or red disks and showy ray flowers

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Examples of cosmos in a Sentence

the origins of the cosmos
an essay that ponders the place of humankind in the vast cosmos

Recent Examples of cosmos from the Web

Tears falling from her eyes after totality, Effie Rawlings, 37, said the experience brought home to her how small humans are in the cosmos.

— douglas perry, OregonLive.com, "Epic traffic snarls follow 2017 eclipse totality path, Google Maps shows," 21 Aug. 2017
The reality is that humans have been passively announcing our presence to the cosmos for nearly a century via radar, radio, and TV transmissions.

— National Geographic, "How a NASA Spacecraft May Help Aliens Find Earth," 14 Aug. 2017
Bezos has described the company, which is initially focused on space tourism, as a chance to expand humanity's reach in the cosmos.

— lisa marie segarra, Fortune, "Spaceships and Newspapers: How Jeff Bezos Spends His Money," 27 July 2017
Hundreds of scientists cycle through every year to study the perils of collapsing ice caps, the mating habits of penguins, the deep history of the Earth and the great mysteries of the cosmos.

— justin gillis, jonathan corum, Alaska Dispatch News, "Where else does the U.S. have an infrastructure problem? Antarctica," 18 July 2017
Not to mention the president's sometimes baffling remarks about the cosmos.

— avi selk, Washington Post, "‘It has to be something, but it could be infinity’: Trump ponders space in strange ceremony," 1 July 2017
But in recent years, data from even farther afield—maps of the cosmos on the grandest scales—suggest that the neutrino might be too light for KATRIN to grasp.

— adrian cho, Science | AAAS, "Weighing the universe's most elusive particle," 29 June 2017
If the neutrino mass does elude KATRIN, their current understanding of the cosmos will have passed another test.

— adrian cho, Science | AAAS, "Weighing the universe's most elusive particle," 29 June 2017
Gravitational-wave detectors are going to give us an entirely new view of our place in the cosmos.

— chris lee, Ars Technica, "Black-hole mergers may reveal dark past of cannibalism," 27 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cosmos.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

cosmos and the Universe

Cosmos often simply means "universe". But the word is generally used to suggest an orderly or harmonious universe, as it was originally used by Pythagoras in the 6th century B.C. Thus, a religious mystic may help put us in touch with the cosmos, and so may a physicist. The same is often true of the adjective cosmic: Cosmic rays (really particles rather than rays) bombard us from outer space, but cosmic questions come from human attempts to find order in the universe.