A solid piece of debris from an object such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or moon.
Last night, I saw a meteorite fall.
A large meteorite is on display at the museum.
I heard a meteorite fell in the mountains last year.
It's possible that a huge meteorite collided with Earth.
A new meteorite was discovered in Antarctica.
隕石 is a meteorite—a fragment that has actually fallen to Earth—whereas 小惑星 is an asteroid still orbiting in space.
counter for small objects; counter for pieces · counter for military units · individual; one person · counter for years of age difference; counter for school years
Standard kanji spelling, common in news and scientific contexts.
Search-only mixed kanji-kana form; not a standard written variant.
From Middle Chinese 隕石 (MC hwinX dzyek, literally 'falling stone'). The kanji 隕 means 'fall' and 石 means 'stone'.