Geosynchronous

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Refers to the orbit of a satellite whose rate of revolution is matched to the rotation period of the Earth. A special case is the geostationary orbit, which is circular and equatorial, so that the satellite appears to be fixed over a particular point on Earth's surface. not-comparable

    "Hiro looks up, focuses his gaze on Earth, zooms in for a look. As he gets closer, the imagery he’s looking at shifts from the long-range pictures coming in from the geosynchronous satellites to the good stuff being spewed into the CIC computer from a whole fleet of low-flying spy birds. The view he’s looking at is a mosaic of images shot no more than a few hours ago."

Adjective
  1. 1
    of or having an orbit with a fixed period of 24 hours (although the position in the orbit may not be fixed with respect to the earth) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
fixed

Example

More examples

"Data from Hubble are relayed to the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) that is in a geosynchronous orbit above Earth. This satellite relays the data to a terminal in White Sands, New Mexico."

Etymology

From geo- + synchronous.

Related phrases

geosynchronous orbit

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.