a meteor is a particle that is only seen by the steak of light it makes as it enters the atmosphere or is this streak of light. a meteoroid is the particle in a meteor. a meteorite is a meteor that has survived to hit the ground.
Just a slight correction on methos' answer. A meteor is only the blazing phenomenon created by a meteoroid's interaction with an atmosphere, not the object itself.
it appears to be one of those scientific terminology vs. acceptable terminology. The dictionaries i looked at include the particle in the definition of meteor, but my old astrophysics text agrees with minnesota. i guess i should have checked it before believing webster and his friends ;-)
