Meteors and meteorites are two different things... One strikes the earth and one doesn't. Most scientists believe that meteors don't strike the earth. If knowing the difference between the two is being pedantic then I suppose I am pedantic.
It's the difference between an empty cup, and a cup with the slightest drop of liquid in. A meteor is a meteor until it's on the ground. If someone offers to fill an empty glass, you're not going to complain that you can never fill an empty glass, because it stops being empty at the slightest molecule.
Pay attention to context.
If you really want to get technical, it's still a meteor in the atmosphere, and in the atmosphere there's still going to be dust and fragments of earth, so meteors do strike earth. They simply stop being called meteors when they're at rest on the surface: but while they're moving down, and for that matter at the first instant of impact, they're meteors striking Earth.
But being that pedantic and picky, it's just silly, isn't it?