meteor
n. countablen. a small piece of space rock that burns up in the sky. You see it as a bright streak of light when it enters the Earth's atmosphere.
n. a small celestial body that becomes visible as it enters the Earth's atmosphere and burns up. Often used to describe the visible streak of light rather than the solid object itself.
We saw a bright meteor in the night sky.
The meteor shower peaked at midnight, drawing crowds to the dark fields.
While the meteor itself disintegrated in the upper atmosphere, the resulting shockwave was felt by residents miles away.
From Middle French météore, from Old French, from Latin meteorum, from Ancient Greek μετέωρον (metéōron), from μετέωρος (metéōros, “raised from the ground, hanging, lofty”), from μετά (metá, “in the midst of, among, between”) (English meta) + ἀείρω (aeírō, “to lift, to heave, to raise up”). The original sense of “atmospheric phenomenon” gave rise to meteorology, but the meaning of "meteor" is now restricted to extraterrestrial objects burning up as they enter the atmosphere.