Associations to the word «Sputnik»
Wiktionary
SPUTNIK, noun. (historical) Any of a series of Soviet robotic space satellites, especially the first one in 1957.
SPUTNIK, noun. (dated) Any artificial satellite.
SPUTNIK MOMENT, noun. The moment that a country or a society, in particular the US, realizes that it needs to catch up with the apparent technological and scientific gap that exists between it and some other country, increasing its investment efforts into education and innovative R&D.
Dictionary definition
SPUTNIK, noun. A Russian artificial satellite; "Sputnik was the first man-made satellite to orbit the earth".
Wise words
We should have a great fewer disputes in the world if words
were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only,
and not for things themselves.