Definition

1. Noun:
   • Shooting star; meteor: A bright streak of light in the night sky caused by a small piece of cosmic debris (a meteoroid) burning up due to friction as it enters the Earth's atmosphere. This is the most common and poetic meaning.
   • Bolide: A particularly bright and explosive meteor, often called a fireball.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • Đêm qua, tôi thấy một vệt sao băng. (Last night, I saw a shooting star.)
  • Hiện tượng sao băng thực chất là do thiên thạch nhỏ bốc cháy. (The shooting star phenomenon is actually caused by a small meteorite burning up.)
  • Một sao băng rất sáng, có thể gọi là bolide, đã lướt qua bầu trời. (A very bright shooting star, which could be called a bolide, streaked across the sky.)

Advanced Usage

• The term "sao băng" is often used metaphorically in literature and everyday speech to describe something dazzlingly beautiful but very brief, transient, or ephemeral.
  • Tình yêu của họ đẹp nhưng ngắn ngủi như một vệt sao băng. (Their love was beautiful but as brief as a shooting star's trail.)

Variants and Related Words

• Sao đổi ngôi (n): An older or less common synonym for "sao băng," literally meaning "star that changes its position."
• Sao chổi (n): Comet. (A different celestial object consisting of ice and dust that develops a visible tail when near the sun.)
• Thiên thạch / vân thạch (n): Meteorite. (A fragment of a meteoroid that survives its passage through the atmosphere and lands on Earth.)

Synonyms

• Shooting star: The common, poetic term.
• Meteor: The scientific term for the visible streak of light.
• Fireball / Bolide: A very bright meteor.

Related Idioms and Expressions

• Đẹp như sao băng: (As beautiful as a shooting star.) Used to describe a woman of stunning, breathtaking beauty, often with a connotation of that beauty being rare, dazzling, or fleeting.
  • Trong đám cưới, cô dâu trông đẹp như sao băng. (At the wedding, the bride looked as beautiful as a shooting star.)

noun

1. shooting star, bolide