angle of attack
Americannoun
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especially British, angle of incidence. Aeronautics. the acute angle between the chord of an aircraft wing or other airfoil and the direction of the relative wind.
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Railroads. the angular attitude of a wheel flange to the rail, especially on curves.
noun
Etymology
Origin of angle of attack
First recorded in 1905–10
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.
"It just gives you another angle of attack, as otherwise you run out of ways he can say the wrong thing or lose his temper with someone."
From BBC • Sep. 30, 2025
They discovered that the corrugated wing performance was better when the angle of attack, that angle at which the wind meets the wing, was greater than 30°.
From Science Daily • Jan. 26, 2024
In the Ethiopian Air crash, this angle of attack reading jumped from about 12° to 74.5° in less than a second, which would clearly be physically impossible for a flying machine weighing over 100,000 pounds.
From Salon • Jan. 26, 2024
Rugna’s taken demonic possession, that increasingly threadbare horror trope, and twisted it around until he found his own angle of attack.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 6, 2023
This fact supplied us with a fresh angle of attack.
From Jailed for Freedom by Stevens, Doris
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.
