satellite
sat·el·lite/ˈsætəlaɪ̯t/noun, verb
satellite is spelled S-A-T-E-L-L-I-T-E, 3 syllables: sat·el·lite. The wrong spelling people search most is satelite: about 1,420 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Satellite is a noun meaning “A moon or other smaller body orbiting a larger one”. The plural of satellite is satellites.
How many letters and syllables are in satellite?
| Letters | 9: S-A-T-E-L-L-I-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: sat·el·lite |
| In writing | 21 times per million words; the 4,076th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, satelite, about 1,420 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell satellite?
Satellite is spelled S-A-T-E-L-L-I-T-E. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for satellite in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is satellite?
Satellite appears 21 times per million words in written English, the 4,076th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce satellite?
- /ˈsætəlaɪ̯t/
- [ˈsætʰəlaɪ̯t] ~ [ˈsætʰl̩aɪ̯t]
- /ˈsæɾəlaɪ̯t/
Satellite has 3 syllables, split sat·el·lite in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-satellite.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-satellite.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with satellite?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as satellite.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: telestial.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of satellite
- satellites plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- satelliting participle, present
- satellited participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does satellite mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A moon or other smaller body orbiting a larger one.
The Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth.
- 2
A man-made apparatus designed to be placed in orbit around a celestial body, generally to relay information, data, etc. to Earth.
Many telecommunication satellites orbit at 36000km above the equator.
- 3
A country, state, office, building etc. which is under the jurisdiction, influence, or domination of another body.
- 4
archaicAn attendant on an important person; a member of someone's retinue, often in a somewhat derogatory sense; a henchman.
- 5
colloquialSatellite TV; reception of television broadcasts via services that use man-made satellite technology.
Do you have satellite at your house?
- 6
A grammatical construct that takes various forms and may encode a path of movement, a change of state, or the grammatical aspect. Examples: "a bird flew past"; "she turned on the light".
- 7
A very large array of tandemly repeating, non-coding DNA.
- 8
A community or town dependent on a larger town or city nearby.
verb
- 1
To transmit by satellite.
- 2
To orbit, like a satellite
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate satellite?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of satellite: sat.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Satellite in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | Begleiter, Gefolgsmann , Trabant, Satellit |
| French | satellite |
| Portuguese | satélite |
| Spanish | satélite |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does satellite come from?
From Middle French satellite, from Latin satelles (“attendant”). Ultimately perhaps of Etruscan origin.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).