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Luftwaffe

American  
[looft-vahf-uh] / ˈlʊftˌvɑf ə /

noun

German.
  1. air force.


Luftwaffe British  
/ ˈlʊftvafə /

noun

  1. the German Air Force

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Luftwaffe Cultural  
  1. The German air force in World War II. (See blitzkrieg and Battle of Britain.)


Etymology

Origin of Luftwaffe

C20: German, literally: air weapon

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.

By 1944 the OT’s workforce numbered 1.5 million, around the same size as the Luftwaffe before the invasion of Russia.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 24, 2025

In September 1938, just as the Munich crisis was heating up, he told the French government that the Luftwaffe possessed 8,000 aircraft and could produce 1,500 per month.

From Salon • Sep. 21, 2024

One B-17 survives Luftwaffe attacks and crash-lands in Northern Africa.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 18, 2024

This kind of siren, so strongly associated in Britain with World War Two, is actually more than a century old, and has been used for all kinds of emergencies - not just Luftwaffe bombing raids.

From BBC • Apr. 11, 2024

In the middle of September, Hut 6 started picking up a change of tone in Luftwaffe Enigma messages.

From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

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