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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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.
Most sets were built in Toronto, disassembled and palletized to fit the cargo plane’s fuselage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026
The process was also slowed by a near-catastrophic January 2024 Alaska Airlines flight in which a fuselage panel blew out mid-flight.
From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2026
Spirit built the fuselage of the Alaska Airlines plane where the door plug blew off midflight.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
The plane continued down the runway as sparks and fire wrapped around the rear fuselage, before it slowed to a stop.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026
It took time to find it all as a few of the boxes had fallen out of the damaged fuselage and the rear cockpit, which Julie had left open, of course.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
