ex·tra·ter·res·tri·al | ˌek-strə-tə-ˈre-strē-əl
, -ˈres-chəl, -ˈresh-chəl
: originating, existing, or occurring outside the earth or its atmosphere extraterrestrial life
extraterrestrial
nounRecent Examples on the Web: Adjective At the same time, the sources of radio interference on Earth—military radars, TV towers, cell phones, and satellites—have exponentially increased, which greatly increases the chances that anextraterrestrial signal will be lost among the noise. — Daniel Oberhaus Supercluster, Smithsonian Magazine, “Why Astronomers Want to Build a SETI Observatory on the Moon,” 2 Oct. 2020 Theextraterrestrial being turned out to be La Toya Jackson. — Selena Barrientos, Good Housekeeping, “Who Is Baby Alien on ‘The Masked Singer’? Fans Are Positive They Know,” 30 Sep. 2020 And, of course, there’s the question ofextraterrestrial life. — Jessie Yeung, CNN, “Mars might have salty ponds next to its underground lake, raising the possibility of Martian life,” 29 Sep. 2020 But despite its drawbacks, Venus has not been entirely neglected by scientists speculating about life’sextraterrestrial abodes. — Adam Mann, Scientific American, “Venus Might Host Life, New Discovery Suggests,” 14 Sep. 2020 But this week, sweltering Venus became a surprising hot topic in humanity’s quest to findextraterrestrial life. — Eva Botkin-kowacki, The Christian Science Monitor, “Life in clouds of Venus? Why murky clue tantalizes scientists.,” 18 Sep. 2020 Earlier this year, the founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, a small launch provider from New Zealand, announced the company’s plan to dispatch its own atmospheric probe to Venus to scout for signs ofextraterrestrial life. — Daniel Oberhaus, Wired, “Rocket Lab Could Beat NASA Back to Venus in the Search for ET,” 18 Sep. 2020 Not long after, Greaves got in touch with Sousa-Silva, who spent her years in graduate school working out whether phosphine could be a viableextraterrestrial biosignature. — Nadia Drake, National Geographic, “Possible sign of life on Venus stirs up heated debate,” 14 Sep. 2020 The endeavor known as the search forextraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has long relied on radio telescopes to listen for broadcasts from potential alien callers. — Adam Mann, Scientific American, “Want to Talk to Aliens? Try Changing the Technological Channel Beyond Radio,” 2 Sep. 2020 Recent Examples on the Web: Noun The most striking images were from San Francisco proper, which was bathed in a zestless citrus haze, as if some evilextraterrestrial had zapped Karl the Fog with a deadly malady. — Steven Levy, Wired, “The Apocalypse Doesn’t Need an Instagram Filter,” 11 Sep. 2020 Below his sweet words to his wife, Taylor, there’s a pair of the cartoonist’s trademark blueextraterrestrials. — Byangela Haupt, Washington Post, “How 12 authors turned their book dedications into grand romantic gestures,” 11 Feb. 2020 Another thing that enterprisingextraterrestrials might do is simply monitor the total amount of light coming from Earth — even seen in a single pixel. —NBC News, “We keep looking for space aliens. Are they looking for us?,” 18 Sep. 2019 Sharon Wehrly, the sheriff in adjacent Nye County, home to the Area 51 Alien Center, said messages discouraging Earthlings from trying to findextraterrestrials in Amargosa Valley appeared to work. — Travis Fedschun, Fox News, “‘Storm Area 51’ raid brings alien ‘community of believers’ to Nevada desert,” 20 Sep. 2019 In a section about smoking a spliff on the balcony, a friend’s pointed question about Pico’s ex turns into a far-out conversation aboutextraterrestrials, as though the poem were getting stoned as well. — Dan Chiasson, The New Yorker, “Tommy Pico Filibusters Mortality with Poetry,” 6 Jan. 2020 Based on a Ray Bradbury short story about an astronomer’s encounter withextraterrestrials in the Arizona desert. —Los Angeles Times, “Movies on TV this week: Sunday, Sept. 22, 2019,” 22 Sep. 2019 After all, ifextraterrestrials are unaware of our world and its properties, what would spur them to transmit signals in our direction? —NBC News, “We keep looking for space aliens. Are they looking for us?,” 18 Sep. 2019 Kean is convinced that there are unexplained aerial phenomena, but not convinced itsextraterrestrials. — Matt Blitz, Popular Mechanics, “Angels, Airships, and Aliens: The 3,500-Year History of UFO Sightings,” 24 Sep. 2019
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word ‘extraterrestrial.’ Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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