Added 9 October 2026
rocket
/ˈɹɒk.ɪt/ noun
In Latin: rocheta, rucheta Wiktionary
noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about rocket at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
- A projectile. A cylindrical projectile that can be fired to a great height through combustion, a type of firework of this form, typically exploding with light and colour; a skyrocket. .mw-parser-output .defdate{font-size:smaller} A blunt lance head used in jousting. A long vehicle or craft propelled by a rocket engine; a missile or rocket-propelled spacecraft. An engine operating similarly to the pyrotechnic, generating thrust by the expulsion of hot gases; a rocket engine.
- A cylindrical projectile that can be fired to a great height through combustion, a type of firework of this form, typically exploding with light and colour; a skyrocket. .mw-parser-output .defdate{font-size:smaller}
- A blunt lance head used in jousting.
verb
- To accelerate swiftly and powerfully.
- To fly vertically.
- To rise or soar rapidly.
noun
Origin
From Italian rocchetta, from Old Italian rocchetto (“rocket”, literally “a bobbin”), diminutive of rocca (“a distaff”), from Lombardic rocko (“spinning wheel”), from Proto-West Germanic *rokkō, from Proto-Germanic *rukkô (“a distaff, a staff with flax fibres tied loosely to it, used in spinning thread”). Cognate with Old High German rocco, rocko, roccho, rocho ("a distaff"; > German Rocken (“a distaff”)), Swedish rock (“a distaff”), Icelandic rokkur (“a distaff”), Middle English rocke (“a distaff”). More at rock⁴. For the meaning development, compare fuselage, ultimately from Latin fūsus (“spindle, spinning wheel”).
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)