satellite
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: biology
broadcasting
genetics
grammar
human-sciences
linguistics
media
medicine
natural-sciences
sciences
Etymology: From Middle French satellite, from Latin satelles (“attendant”). Ultimately perhaps of Etruscan origin.
Inflected forms:
form: satellites
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: satellites
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: satelliting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: satellited
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: satellited
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A moon or other smaller body orbiting a larger one.
pos: noun
examples: The Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth.
A spent upper stage is a derelict satellite.
gloss: A man-made apparatus designed to be placed in orbit around a celestial body, generally to relay information, data etc. to Earth.
pos: noun
examples: Many telecommunication satellites orbit at 36000km above the equator.
A 2025 global survey revealed widespread satellite interference in astrophotography, with 90% of respondents reporting moderate or worse impacts and 97.5% stating that conditions have significantly worsened over the past five years. This interference carries a substantial burden, costing an average of 27 extra minutes of editing per image, and 78% of participants believe a critical threshold exists, estimated at a median of 25,000 satellites, beyond which astrophotography will be irreparably harmed.
gloss: A country, state, office, building etc. which is under the jurisdiction, influence, or domination of another body.
pos: noun
gloss: An attendant on an important person; a member of someone's retinue, often in a somewhat derogatory sense; a henchman.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
examples: We read in the Bible, that Nicanor the persecutor of Gods Law[…]sent his Satellites to apprehend the good old man Rasias[…].
[…]he would nevertheless have a better bargain of this tall satellite if they settled the debate betwixt them in the forest[…]. Betwixt anxiety, therefore, vexation, and anger, Charles faced suddenly round on his pursuer[…].
Inspector Meadows was a small man with a ginger head and what I considered a peculiarly irritating manner. A satellite, also in plain clothes, sat unobtrusively in a corner.
The unnamed chronicler in his Dupin stories was the first Dr. Watson type of satellite—a narrator who accompanies the detective on his exploits, exclaims over his brilliance[…].
gloss: Satellite TV; reception of television broadcasts via services that use man-made satellite technology.
pos: noun
tags: colloquial
uncountable
examples: Do you have satellite at your house?
gloss: A grammatical construct that takes various forms and may encode a path of movement, a change of state, or the grammatical aspect. Examples: "a bird flew past"; "she turned on the light".
pos: noun
gloss: A very large array of tandemly repeating, non-coding DNA.
pos: noun
gloss: A community or town dependent on a larger town or city nearby.
pos: noun
examples: Ahead of us the lowering smoke-screen of Leeds and her gloomy satellites hung like an incubus over the land.
gloss: To transmit by satellite.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: It had to speed up its efforts to participate in the international satellite television market. In the summer of 1986 it began satelliting TV programs to Africa, and in early 1987, to Asia and twenty countries in Latin America […]
gloss: To orbit, like a satellite
pos: verb
Related words: Deimos
Hiʻiaka
Namaka
Derived words: adenosatellite
alphasatellite
antisatellite
artificial satellite
betasatellite
biosatellite
communications satellite
deltasatellite
direct broadcast satellite
Dyson-Harrop satellite
geosatellite
hypersatellite
INMARSAT
intersatellite
intrasatellite
macrosatellite
megasatellite
myosatellite
power satellite
presatellite
protosatellite
satellect
satellitary
satellite assembly
satellite broadcasting
satellite bus
satellite campus
satellite cell
satellite city
satellite dish
satellite DNA
satellite fly
satellite-framed
satellite-framing
satellite galaxy
satellite hit
satellite image
satellite link
satellite moth
satellite navigation
satellite navigation system
satellite operation
satellite party
satellite phone
satellite planet
satellitesimal
satellite sphinx
satellite state
satellite station
satellite team
satellite telephone
satellite television
satellite tenant
satellite town
satellite TV
satellite vein
satellitism
satellitization
satellitome
satellitosis
satelloid
satnav
satphone
shepherd satellite
statite
sub-satellite
subsatellite
telesatellite
weather satellite
Translations: