Other forms: satellites
A satellite is a machine circling high above the planet, relaying signals and photos. A weather satellite, satellite dish, launch a satellite.
A geostationary one sits at about 35,800 kilometres and appears fixed in the sky, which is why a dish can point at one spot and never move. The word also means any body orbiting another, so the Moon is a satellite, and a satellite town orbits a city. Note that the Latin means an attendant.
1nounsatelliteA machine circling the planet, relaying signals and photos.
“Our TV signal comes from a satellite far above the Earth.”
2nounbodyAny body orbiting another.
“Roughly ninety-five satellites of that planet.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
satellite is an orbiting body.
Latin satelles means an attendant or bodyguard. Kepler applied it to the moons of Jupiter, and the sense spread from there.
Middle French
satellite
English, today
satellite
From Middle French satellite. From Middle French satellite, from Latin satelles (“attendant”). Ultimately perhaps of ett - origin.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA