noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of axle
before 900; Middle English axel, Old English eaxl shoulder, crossbeam (in eaxle-gespann ); cognate with Old Frisian ax ( e ) le, Old Saxon ahsla, Old High German ahsala shoulder ( German Achsel ), Old Norse ǫxl, Latin āla (< derivative of *akslā )
Explanation
An axle is a rod around which a wheel moves or rotates. The front wheels of your car sit on an axle, turning around it as the car moves. Any kind of vehicle with wheels uses some kind of axle for those wheels to rotate on. Trucks, buses, and cars have axles, and so do lawnmowers and wagons and even bicycles. The original, Middle English word for axle was axle-tree, which came from a combination of the Old Norse word öxull and the Old English eax, both of which mean "axis," or "line around which a body rotates."
Vocabulary lists containing axle
Automobiles
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Commonly Misspelled Words, List 1
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Force and Motion (Mechanics) - Middle School
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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.
Foiling the visual expectations of a lifetime, the four-door’s glass roof joins the car’s sloping rear deck just over the rear axle, omitting a transparent panel of any kind.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 25, 2026
Hence the decision to go for a nominal 50-50 split between electric and internal combustion power and an engine with no MGU-H and a much more powerful MGU-K, recovering from the rear axle only.
From BBC • Mar. 10, 2026
Next up is the E-Ray, with the 6.2-liter V8 aided by an electric motor on the front axle, starting at $108,600.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 18, 2025
Although Piastri was almost fully alongside Antonelli on the pit straight and entering the braking zone, his front axle was no longer alongside the mirror of Antonelli's car at the apex.
From BBC • Nov. 11, 2025
The DeSoto, strictly an island car for more than a decade, had been purchased by Ishmael’s father fifteen years before, a four-speed with a semiautomatic transmission, hypoid rear axle, and column shift.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
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.
