airplane
Americannoun
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a heavier-than-air aircraft kept aloft by the upward thrust exerted by the passing air on its fixed wings and driven by propellers, jet propulsion, etc.
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any similar heavier-than-air aircraft, as a glider or helicopter.
noun
Other Word Forms
- proairplane adjective
Etymology
Origin of airplane
1870–75, for an earlier sense; alteration of aeroplane, with air 1 replacing aero-
Compare meaning
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They call it Q-Day, which sounds like something from a movie you’d watch on an airplane, except this one is real and nobody knows exactly when it will arrive.
From MarketWatch
For the same reasons, she recommends using your charging brick on airplanes, instead of plugging directly into your seat’s USB port.
With 11 Starship missions under its belt, SpaceX is planning future flights that would take the spacecraft over Florida, Mexico and North Atlantic airplane routes.
Another user, @wesleybrennan87, posted a photo of two airplane contrails crisscrossing the sky through a break in the fog.
From Los Angeles Times
Another shows him on an airplane tarmac with Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted associate of Epstein.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.