astronaut
noun
Simple meaning
A person trained to travel in a spacecraft.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
astruhnahtSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈæstɹənɑt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A person trained to travel in a spacecraft
“The Russians called their astronauts cosmonauts.”
A member of the crew of a spaceship or other spacecraft that travels beyond Earth's atmosphere, or someone trained to serve that purpose.
An American space traveler, when contrasted against equivalent terms from other countries such as cosmonaut, taikonaut, spationaut, and vyomanaut.
Hong Kong
A person (typically man) working abroad away from their family.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A person trained to travel in a spacecraft
Used this way, astronaut is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“The Russians called their astronauts cosmonauts.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use astronaut
- “The Russians called their astronauts cosmonauts.”noun
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- spacecraftnoun
- shuttleverb
- aboardadverb
Use This Word
See how this word sounds in a real sentence.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “astronaut” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.