fuselage
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of fuselage
1905–10; < French, equivalent to fusel ( é ) spindle-shaped (derivative of fuseau spindle; see fusee) + -age -age
Explanation
The main part of an airplane — the part in which you sit as a passenger — is called the fuselage. Your luggage rides in the fuselage, too. The word fuselage comes from the Latin fusus, or "spindle," which describes the tube shape of the central part of an airplane. Wings, tails, engines — these are all extra parts of the plane that attach to the fuselage. Different kinds of airplanes have different types of fuselages, depending on how fast they need to travel and what they carry, but a fuselage is always hollow and always has a cockpit at the front.
Vocabulary lists containing fuselage
Flying High: Aviation Words
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A Spelling Bee for Fun
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Hatchet
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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.
Putting the forward fuselage of a retired Boeing 747 into the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington required workers to cut the plane into numerous pieces and then reassemble it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
“We heard at one point that María Corina left the country in the fuselage of an airplane carrying migrants, and that once she was out los gringos would arrive,” Monasterio said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 13, 2025
Shares in Airbus earlier fell more than 10 percent on Monday in Paris following media reports that quality problems with fuselage panels had delayed delivery of some of its top-selling A320 aircraft.
From Barron's ● Dec. 1, 2025
Reuters, citing industry sources, reported an industrial-quality issue affecting fuselage panels of several dozen aircraft in the A320 family.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 1, 2025
He went back to the hole in the fuselage and began to chop and cut again, peeling the aluminum skin off in pieces.
From "Hatchet" by Gary Paulsen
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.
