meteorite

noun me·te·or·ite \ ˈmē-tē-ə-ˌrīt \

|Updated on: 6 Jun 2018

Definition of meteorite

: a meteor that reaches the surface of the earth without being completely vaporized

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meteoritic

play \ˌmē-tē-ə-ˈri-tik\ or less commonly meteoritical play \-ti-kəl\ adjective

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Recent Examples of meteorite from the Web

Would a meteorite strike the Salle Bazin mid-screening, as the Telegraph critic Robbie Collin predicted on Twitter?

— justin chang, latimes.com, "Terry Gilliam gets his long-overdue moment with ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote’ at Cannes," 20 May 2018
Competitors came up with a host of answers: The holes might be remnants of meteorites, or maybe dried up salt lakes, some said.

— author: cleve r. wootson jr., Anchorage Daily News, "NASA baffled by mysterious ice circles in the Arctic," 24 Apr. 2018
Competitors came up with a host of answers: The holes might be remnants of meteorites, or maybe dried up salt lakes, some said.

— the washington post, NOLA.com, "NASA baffled by mysterious ice circles in the Arctic," 23 Apr. 2018
The Almahata Sitta meteorite is the first evidence of this early stage.

— jason daley, Smithsonian, "Diamonds Trapped in Strange Meteorite Came From Solar System’s Earliest Planets," 19 Apr. 2018
The diamond pieces inside the meteorite hold a compelling record of these protoplanets and their collisions, according to the study.

— doris elin salazar, Scientific American, "Diamonds in Meteorite May Come from a Lost Planet," 18 Apr. 2018
However, the phosphorus that was first used in cells to transfer energy, and spark reproductive life, likely came after the planet formed and had large bodies of water, as meteorites bearing phosphorous crashed into the wet parts of the world.

— jay bennett, Popular Mechanics, "To Find Life in Our Galaxy, Follow the Phosphorus," 4 Apr. 2018
New research conducted on the meteorites collected at the site, Almahata Sitta, was published in April in the journal Nature Communications.

— ashley strickland, CNN, "These diamonds are from one of our solar system's 'lost planets'," 17 May 2018
The other tiny fraction of the 50,000 meteorites scientists have recovered so far originate on the moon and Mars.

— jason daley, Smithsonian, "Diamonds Trapped in Strange Meteorite Came From Solar System’s Earliest Planets," 19 Apr. 2018

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

First Known Use of meteorite

1823

in the meaning defined above

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METEORITE Defined for English Language Learners

meteorite

noun

Definition of meteorite for English Language Learners

: a piece of rock or metal that has fallen to the ground from outer space : a meteor that reaches the surface of the Earth without burning up entirely