meteoroid

me·te·or·oid

[mee-tee-uh-roid]
noun Astronomy.
any of the small bodies, often remnants of comets, traveling through space: when such a body enters the earth's atmosphere it is heated to luminosity and becomes a meteor.

Origin:
1860–65; meteor + -oid

meteor, meteoric, meteorite, meteoroid.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
meteoroid (ˈmiːtɪəˌrɔɪd) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n
any of the small celestial bodies that are thought to orbit the sun, possibly as the remains of comets. When they enter the earth's atmosphere, they become visible as meteors
 
meteor'oidal
 
adj

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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00:10
Meteoroid is always a great word to know.
So is zedonk. Does it mean:
the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

meteoroid
"rock floating in space, which becomes a meteor when it enters Earth's atmosphere," formed in Eng. 1865.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
meteoroid   (mē'tē-ə-roid')  Pronunciation Key 
A small, rocky or metallic body revolving in interplanetary space around the Sun. A meteoroid is significantly smaller than an asteroid, ranging from small grains or particles to the size of large boulders. The clustered meteoroids associated with regular annual meteor showers are believed to be very small particles of cometary debris. Meteoroids that survive their passage through the Earth's atmosphere and land as meteorites are somewhat larger, solitary bodies and are encountered in no predictable pattern. See Note at meteor.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
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