: facing the sun
Examples of sunward in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Amanda Castro, MSNBC Newsweek, 12 Nov. 2025
Turtles, snakes and voles stretch sunward after months of subterranean winter.
—New York Times, 23 Apr. 2018
At intervals of 100 000 years or more, stars may approach our solar system closely enough to disrupt the solar orbits of some of these comets, pushing them sunward.
—IEEE Spectrum, 28 Mar. 2012
Anthony Wood, Space.com, 13 Nov. 2025
That’s because, like Earth, its spin axis is tilted with respect to its orbit around the sun, so the hemisphere tilted sunward changes, causing seasons.
—Jamie Carter, Forbes, 6 Sep. 2024
How exactly Earth’s sunward sister world went so far astray is one of the greatest mysteries of planetary science—and a potential keystone for astrobiology.
—Leonard David, Scientific American, 14 Nov. 2023
This occurred in both Pioneers, manifesting as a sunward acceleration of 8.74 ± 1.33 × 10−10 m/s2.
—Doug Adler, Discover Magazine, 17 Aug. 2018
The accuracy of the navigational model could be restored if a small, constant sunward force was presumed to be acting on the spacecraft.
—Viktor T. Toth, IEEE Spectrum, 30 Nov. 2012
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Adverb
The most precise predictions come from satellites stationed at the first Lagrange point (L1), located about 1.5 million kilometers sunward from Earth.
—Amanda Castro, MSNBC Newsweek, 12 Nov. 2025
Turtles, snakes and voles stretch sunward after months of subterranean winter.
—New York Times, 23 Apr. 2018
At intervals of 100 000 years or more, stars may approach our solar system closely enough to disrupt the solar orbits of some of these comets, pushing them sunward.
—IEEE Spectrum, 28 Mar. 2012
Adjective
Astronomer Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project also captured spectacular views of the cometary fragmentation on the nights of Nov. 12-13, revealing a large section of the nucleus falling away from the sunward chunk.
—Anthony Wood, Space.com, 13 Nov. 2025
That’s because, like Earth, its spin axis is tilted with respect to its orbit around the sun, so the hemisphere tilted sunward changes, causing seasons.
—Jamie Carter, Forbes, 6 Sep. 2024
How exactly Earth’s sunward sister world went so far astray is one of the greatest mysteries of planetary science—and a potential keystone for astrobiology.
—Leonard David, Scientific American, 14 Nov. 2023
This occurred in both Pioneers, manifesting as a sunward acceleration of 8.74 ± 1.33 × 10−10 m/s2.
—Doug Adler, Discover Magazine, 17 Aug. 2018
The accuracy of the navigational model could be restored if a small, constant sunward force was presumed to be acting on the spacecraft.
—Viktor T. Toth, IEEE Spectrum, 30 Nov. 2012
Cite this Entry
“Sunward.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sunward. Accessed 6 Dec. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
sunward
1 of 2 adverb
sun·ward
ˈsən-wərd 
: toward the sun
the planet tilted sunward
sunward
2 of 2 adjective
: facing the sun
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share