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Orbit

Science
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The curved path of one object around another due to gravity. Planets, moons, and satellites all follow orbits.

Detailed Definition
An orbit is a repeating or changing trajectory produced when gravity draws one body around another. Its shape may be circular, elliptical, or more complex, depending on speed, mass, and surrounding forces. In poetry, orbit can describe habits of return, relationships structured by attraction, or lives circling an unreachable center. The word holds both freedom and constraint: movement continues through open space, yet its course is shaped by a force the traveler cannot see.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Keats’s “Bright star,” the speaker invokes a star “watching, with eternal lids apart,” an image that can be read beside celestial orbit; “The moon keeps its orbit, but my thoughts stray” contrasts predictable physics with emotional uncertainty; A love poem can call two people “bodies in orbit,” suggesting attraction, distance, and recurring approach; “Earth’s orbit tilts the year toward winter” uses astronomy to ground seasonal imagery
Additional Notes
An orbit is shaped by gravity and an object’s speed. Orbits may be nearly circular or elliptical, and an orbiting object can be called a satellite, whether natural or human-made.
Other Meanings of “Orbit”
Also Known As
Orbital Path Trajectory
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