planet
Americannoun
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Astronomy.
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Also called major planet. any of the eight large heavenly bodies revolving about the sun and shining by reflected light: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, or Neptune, in the order of their proximity to the sun. Until 2006, Pluto was classified as a planet ninth in order from the sun; it has been reclassified as a dwarf planet.
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a similar body revolving about a star other than the sun.
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(formerly) a celestial body moving in the sky, as distinguished from a fixed star, applied also to the sun and moon.
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Astrology. the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto: considered sources of energy or consciousness in the interpretation of horoscopes.
noun
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Also called: major planet. any of the eight celestial bodies, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, that revolve around the sun in elliptical orbits and are illuminated by light from the sun
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Also called: extrasolar planet. any other celestial body revolving around a star, illuminated by light from that star
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astrology any of the planets of the solar system, excluding the earth but including the sun and moon, each thought to rule one or sometimes two signs of the zodiac See also house
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In the traditional model of solar systems, a celestial body larger than an asteroid or comet, illuminated by light from a star, such as the Sun, around which it revolves.
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A celestial body that orbits the Sun, has sufficient mass to assume nearly a round shape, clears out dust and debris from the neighborhood around its orbit, and is not a satellite of another planet. The eight planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Pluto was considered to be a planet until its reclassification in 2006 as a dwarf planet. A planetlike body with more than about ten times the mass of Jupiter would be considered a brown dwarf rather than a planet.
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See also extrasolar planet inner planet outer planet
Discover More
There are nine major planets, including the Earth, in orbit around our sun, along with many asteroids. (See solar system.)
Scientists have discovered evidence for the existence of many planets that circle other stars.
Etymology
Origin of planet
1250–1300; Middle English planete (< Old French planète ) < Late Latin planēta, planētēs (found only in plural planētae ) < Greek ( astéres ) planḗtai literally, wandering (stars)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Lying on a blanket spread out on the ground, we gaze up at Jupiter, one of the brightest planets in the sky.
From BBC
Together, these findings challenge long standing assumptions about iron sources in the Southern Ocean as the planet warms.
From Science Daily
"This is a setback, but the movement to defend people and the planet has always faced setbacks and resistance, and Energy Transfer will fail in its goal of silencing its critics."
From Barron's
The earlier findings suggested that sponges existed long before the Cambrian explosion and may have been among the planet's earliest animals.
From Science Daily
That internal structure controls the planet's slow wobble in space, known as precession.
From Science Daily
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
