airman
Americannoun
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airmen
plural
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an aviator.
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U.S. Air Force. an enlisted person of one of the three lowest ranks airmanbasic, airman, airmanfirstclass. Amn
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a member of a military aircrew.
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(in other countries) an enlisted person in the air force.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of airman
1870–75, for an earlier sense; air 1 + -man, on the model of seaman
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:
A California airman died Thursday after the heavy machinery he was operating rolled down an embankment at a military base, officials said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026
US officials have confirmed the downed airman - who was stranded in a remote, mountainous region of Iran after his aircraft was shot down - was rescued by US special forces on 4 April.
From BBC ● Apr. 11, 2026
They told him the Pentagon had long planned for this scenario and could rescue the airman.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 5, 2026
According to reports in US media, the airman hid himself in a mountain crevice and restricted the use of his beacon - concerned the signal could be picked up by Iran.
From BBC ● Apr. 5, 2026
They had another British officer in here one time, an English airman, very I-say tip-top well-bred chap, and though he was kept under guard he was always allowed to walk about with his hands free.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
“We’re asking airmen to strap into jets that their grandfathers, fathers and now they are flying, and it is time for a reset,” said Doug Birkey, executive director of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026
The CIA "executed a deception campaign to confuse the Iranians, who were desperately hunting for our airmen," whom Washington located as of Saturday morning, Ratcliffe said, without providing details on the deception efforts.
From Barron's ● Apr. 6, 2026
“You know, normally this is not done. When airmen go down, you can’t get them in very tough countries.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 5, 2026
In the interview, the president also shared new details about the dramatic rescue of two U.S. airmen whose F-15E was shot down over Iran.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 5, 2026
She lived in warlike times, when the lives of young people were as short as those of airmen in the twentieth century.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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.
