PLANET

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does planet mean? 

• PLANET (noun)
  The noun PLANET has 3 senses:

1. (astronomy) any of the nine large celestial bodies in the solar system that revolve around the sun and shine by reflected light; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in order of their proximity to the sun; viewed from the constellation Hercules, all the planets rotate around the sun in a counterclockwise direction

2. a person who follows or serves another

3. any celestial body (other than comets or satellites) that revolves around a star

  Familiarity information: PLANET used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PLANET (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(astronomy) any of the nine large celestial bodies in the solar system that revolve around the sun and shine by reflected light; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in order of their proximity to the sun; viewed from the constellation Hercules, all the planets rotate around the sun in a counterclockwise direction

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

major planet; planet

Hypernyms ("planet" is a kind of...):

celestial body; heavenly body (natural objects visible in the sky)

Meronyms (parts of "planet"):

biosphere (the regions of the surface and atmosphere of the Earth (or other planet) where living organisms exist)

Domain category:

astronomy; uranology (the branch of physics that studies celestial bodies and the universe as a whole)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "planet"):

inferior planet (any of the planets whose orbit lies inside the earth's orbit)

gas giant; Jovian planet (any of the four outermost planets in the solar system; much larger than Earth and gaseous in nature (like Jupiter))

daystar; Lucifer; morning star; Phosphorus (a planet (usually Venus) seen just before sunrise in the eastern sky)

outer planet ((astronomy) a major planet whose orbit is outside the asteroid belt (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto))

superior planet (any of the planets whose orbit lies outside the earth's orbit)

terrestrial planet (a planet having a compact rocky surface like the Earth's; the four innermost planets in the solar system)

Instance hyponyms:

evening star; Hesperus; Vesper (a planet (usually Venus) seen at sunset in the western sky)

Holonyms ("planet" is a member of...):

solar system (the sun with the celestial bodies that revolve around it in its gravitational field)

Derivation:

planetal; planetary (of or relating to or resembling the physical or orbital characteristics of a planet or the planets)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A person who follows or serves another

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

planet; satellite

Hypernyms ("planet" is a kind of...):

follower (a person who accepts the leadership of another)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Any celestial body (other than comets or satellites) that revolves around a star

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("planet" is a kind of...):

celestial body; heavenly body (natural objects visible in the sky)

Derivation:

planetal (of or relating to or resembling the physical or orbital characteristics of a planet or the planets)

 Context examples 

Researchers discovered two Earth-like planets near Teegarden’s Star.

(Researchers find two new planets with masses similar to Earth’s near a small neighbouring star, University of Granada)

You have no less than four powerful planets in your fourth house, which rules your physical home.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Remote and alien as a traveller from another planet, he snarled down their soft-spoken love-words.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

No spacecraft has ever ventured so close to the planet before.

(Cassini Spacecraft Makes Its Final Approach to Saturn, NASA)

How could you make them look so clear, and yet not at all brilliant? for the planet above quells their rays.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A planet might as well leave its orbit.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Additionally, brown dwarfs will help scientists study exoplanets, planets outside our solar system, as the atmosphere of cool brown dwarfs is similar to what astronomers expect to find at many exoplanets.

(Powerful Auroras Found at Brown Dwarf, NASA)

Comets are time capsules containing primitive material left over from the epoch when the sun and its planets formed.

(Rosetta closing in on comet, NASA)

Unlike Earth, Mars does not have a global magnetic field that envelops the entire planet.

(Auroras on Mars, NASA)

More than 90 percent of our planet’s freshwater ice is bound in the massive ice sheets and glaciers of the Antarctic and Greenland.

(The Hidden Meltdown of Greenland, NASA)