sunspot

noun

sun·​spot ˈsən-ˌspät How to pronounce sunspot (audio)
: any of the dark spots that appear at times on the sun's surface and are usually visible only through a telescope

Examples of sunspot in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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All three eruptions came from sunspot region AR 4168, which rapidly developed a more complex magnetic structure over the weekend. Daisy Dobrijevic, Space.com, 4 Aug. 2025 The solar flare, categorized as X-class in scale—the highest scale, was triggered by an active region of a sunspot on June 19 at 11:50 p.m. UTC. Soo Kim, MSNBC Newsweek, 20 June 2025 Continent-size sunspots appear to swirl near the heart of the sun’s inner atmosphere in the close-up. Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 4 May 2025 But this method, called transit spectroscopy, sometimes has a hard time distinguishing cloudy atmospheres from absent ones, and stellar messiness like sunspots can further complicate interpretations. Elise Cutts, Quanta Magazine, 12 Mar. 2025 See All Example Sentences for sunspot

Word History

First Known Use

1676, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of sunspot was in 1676

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Cite this Entry

“Sunspot.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sunspot. Accessed 19 Aug. 2025.

Kids Definition

sunspot

noun
sun·​spot -ˌspät How to pronounce sunspot (audio)
: one of the dark spots that appear from time to time on the sun's surface and are usually visible only through a telescope

More from Merriam-Webster on sunspot

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