cosmonaut

noun

cos·​mo·​naut ˈkäz-mə-ˌnȯt 

-ˌnät

: an astronaut of the Soviet or Russian space program

Examples of cosmonaut in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Crew 10 commander Anne McClain, pilot Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov were strapped in and ready for blastoff from historic pad 39 at the Kennedy Space Center at 7:48 p.m. EDT. —William Harwood, CBS News, 12 Mar. 2025

Also joining them on the return flight are NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who have been in space since last September. —David Chiu, People.com, 12 Mar. 2025

The circular blue and white emblem depicts the cosmonaut, who in 1965 led the world's first mission to perform a spacewalk. —Robert Z. Pearlman, Space.com, 27 Feb. 2025

Rapid deceleration imposed more than six times the force of gravity on Kelly and his crewmates, the cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov. —Dhruv Khullar, The New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Russian kosmonavt, from Greek kosmos + Russian -navt (as in aeronavt aeronaut)

First Known Use

1955, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for cosmonaut

• aeronaut
• aforethought
• afterthought
• apricot
• argonaut
• astronaut
• camelot
• coffeepot
• concordat
• entrepot
• flowerpot
• huguenot

Kids Definition

cosmonaut

noun

cos·​mo·​naut ˈkäz-mə-ˌnȯt 

-ˌnät

: a Soviet or Russian astronaut