meteorite

noun me·te·or·ite \ ˈmē-tē-ə-ˌrīt \

|Updated on: 15 Aug 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

Three-quarters of the Earth’s plants and animals went extinct 66 million years ago when a meteorite hit Earth, coupled with a volcanic eruption.

— laney ruckstuhl, BostonGlobe.com, "NASA issues asteroid preparedness plan," 21 June 2018
There are some non-biological explanations for the detection — this combination of compounds has also been found in meteorites.

— author: sarah kaplan, Anchorage Daily News, "Newest NASA discoveries could boost search for ancient life on Mars," 8 June 2018
But there's another way to get your hands on a diamond: wait for one to crash to Earth inside a meteorite.

— scott k. johnson, Ars Technica, "Meteorite’s diamonds tell of Earth’s baby sister, which died young," 18 Apr. 2018
Weiss pulled me down the hall to his office to show me new data on one of these rocks, a meteorite called Allende.

— linda t. elkins-tanton, Scientific American, "Our Solar System Was Born through High-Energy Crashes, Not Stately Growth," 26 Dec. 2016
Iron that comes from meteorites has a higher nickel content than iron dug up from the ground and smelted by humans.

— jonathan schifman, Popular Mechanics, "The Entire History of Steel," 9 July 2018
But these meteorites may have been contaminated by Earth’s surface.

— jeremy hsu, Scientific American, "Japan’s Hayabusa2 Spacecraft Nears Its Target, the Asteroid Ryugu," 26 June 2018
That honor now belongs to lonsdaleite, a metal that forms when a meteorite strikes the planet.

— alison murphy, WSJ, "Summer Reads for Perfectionists," 31 May 2018
The samples will be given to the Smithsonian Institution, which houses the national meteorite collection.

— sandi doughton, The Seattle Times, "Meteorite search off the Washington coast recovers two small fragments," 3 July 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