Phrase guide

sounding rocket

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A suborbital rocket used to launch upper atmosphere, exoatmospheric, and microgravity sondes or probes.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: aerospace, business, engineering, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, space-science

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a research rocket used to obtain information about the atmosphere at various altitudes

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: test rocket, research rocket, test instrument vehicle

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

3 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 探空火箭 (tànkōng huǒjiàn) — rocket
  • Finnish: luotainraketti — rocket
  • Swedish: sondraket — rocket