the stratosphere

noun

1
: the upper layer of the Earth's atmosphere that begins about 7 miles (11 kilometers) above the Earth's surface and ends about 30 miles (50 kilometers) above the Earth's surface
2
: a very high position, level, or amount
Tuition at many colleges has soared into the stratosphere.
His career is clearly headed for the stratosphere.

Examples of the stratosphere in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The results can’t be explained by pollution from rocket launches or aircraft passing through the stratosphere, which yield particles with very different sizes and chemical signatures. Leonard David, Scientific American, 26 Oct. 2023 Passengers will then spend three hours in the stratosphere at an altitude of 15.5 miles before slowly descending back to Earth. Alison Fox, Travel + Leisure, 24 Apr. 2023 At one point, smoke from the fire near Edson formed pyrocumulonimbus clouds that injected a plume of soot 31 miles up into the stratosphere, which then traveled around the globe. Omar Mouallem, WIRED, 23 Aug. 2023 Ozone levels usually return to normal by mid-December, after temperatures high up in the stratosphere rise in the southern hemisphere, slowing the ozone depletion and weakening the polar vortex, according to Copernicus. Julia Jacobo, ABC News, 4 Oct. 2023 Their humility level was out of the stratosphere compared to what ours was. Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 9 June 2023 Two years later, the United Nations agreed to ban the chemicals responsible for eroding the layer of the stratosphere that shields Earth from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. J. Besl, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 May 2023 Balloons filled with helium or hydrogen will depart from France with two pilots on board and rise 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) into the stratosphere for 1 1/2 hours. Sarah Rappaport, Fortune, 19 Apr. 2023 Still working on his debut album, the Stillwater native found that opening slots for Charles Wesley Godwin and 49 Winchester this year were more than enough to send his career into the stratosphere, album be damned. Josh Crutchmer, Rolling Stone, 26 Sep. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'the stratosphere.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Dictionary Entries Near the stratosphere

Cite this Entry

“The stratosphere.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/the%20stratosphere. Accessed 2 Dec. 2023.

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