aerie
Americannoun
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aeries
plural
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the nest of a bird of prey, as an eagle or a hawk.
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a lofty nest of any large bird.
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a house, fortress, or the like, located high on a hill or mountain.
They felt protected from invaders in the hilltop aerie.
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an apartment or office on a high floor in a high-rise building.
a penthouse aerie with a spectacular view.
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Obsolete. the brood in a nest, especially of a bird of prey.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of aerie
First recorded in 1575–85; from Anglo-French, Old French airie, equivalent to aire (from Latin ager “field,” presumably “nest” in Vulgar Latin ) + ie; see origin at acre, -y 3; compare Medieval Latin aerea, aeria “aerie, brood,” from Old French aire
Explanation
An aerie is the nest of a large bird of prey somewhere high up, such as the branch of a tree or a clifftop. Don't confuse aerie with airy, meaning spacious and well ventilated (though it's a safe bet that given their location most aeries are exactly that). The word also has the meaning of a human residence that's perched high up — particularly an artist's garret, for example, in the eaves of a building.
Vocabulary lists containing aerie
Words of a Feather: Unflappable Avian Vocabulary
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A Walk in the Woods
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aer, aero
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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.
See Examples For:
President Trump was also in attendance, up in a skybox aerie in Madison Square Garden.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026
It will be interesting to see where Thorne lands after leaving an aerie like this.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 15, 2025
“How you like us so far?” joked Paul Reiser, the actor and comedian, from one corner of a squishy sofa in McDonald’s Santa Barbara, Calif., aerie on a recent Tuesday morning.
From New York Times ● May 9, 2024
Tan’s gorgeous aerie above San Francisco Bay, with its canopy of four Pacific live oaks, is a paradise for birds, hosting 63 species and counting.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2024
The rain deluged, flooding the girder and running into the aerie.
From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
It’s only in the last several years that academic researchers have been leaving the university aeries and flocking to industry.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 24, 2023
Many of the cave interiors have been playfully reimagined; in some, ceilings have been knocked out, creating three-story aeries.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 20, 2015
When People magazine sought homey shots of Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford or Robert Redford in their mountain aeries, Mr. Regan was often asked to take the job.
From New York Times ● Dec. 1, 2012
Governments should encourage people to live in modestly sized urban aeries instead of bribing home buyers into big suburban McMansions.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 17, 2011
On the narrow peninsula they met hundreds of other raptors going north to their aeries, their nests and scrapes.
From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
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.
