Cosmic

How to spell cosmic

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce cosmic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cosmic mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the universe or to space, especially as distinct from the Earth.
2. adjectiveExtremely large or significant, as if on the scale of the universe.

Cosmic in a sentence

• The telescope detected cosmic radiation from distant galaxies.

• The merger was described as a deal of cosmic proportions.

• Astronomers measure cosmic distances in light years.

• Forgetting his anniversary felt like a cosmic mistake to him.

Where does cosmic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word traces back to the ancient Greek kosmos, which originally meant 'order' or 'good arrangement' and only later came to mean the orderly universe as a whole. The Greek philosophers were struck by the orderliness of the heavens, so they used the same word for the universe that they used for tidy arrangement; the cosmetic sense of 'adornment' shares this very root, since beauty was seen as a kind of pleasing order. From kosmos the Greeks formed kosmikos, meaning 'of the world or universe', and this passed into Latin as cosmicus and then into French. English adopted 'cosmic' in the seventeenth century as scientific and philosophical interest in astronomy grew. The single 's' spelling reflects the Greek and Latin original, since there was never a doubled consonant in the source word.

How the word is built

• cosm- (from Greek kosmos: order, world, universe)
• -ic (adjective suffix: relating to)