satellite
- Top 5000
Sense 1
- noun
- B1
A machine that people send up into space so that it travels around the Earth and sends back pictures, signals or measurements.
A weather satellite sends fresh pictures of the clouds every hour.
Your phone works out where you are using signals from satellites.
The satellite stopped answering after a piece of old metal hit it.
Three countries paid together for the new communications satellite.
Common collocations: launch a satellite · weather satellite · communications satellite · satellite image · satellite dish · put a satellite into orbit
Part of: Space, Science and technology, Phone and internet
Sense 2 · less common
- noun
- B2
A natural body, such as a moon, that keeps moving in a path around a planet.
A natural satellite is any rocky body circling a larger planet.
Astronomers keep finding new satellites around the outer planets.
Some natural satellites are wider than the smallest planet we know.
Common collocations: natural satellite · satellite of a planet · orbit as a satellite
Part of: Space