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.
The X-48, a scaled down model of an airliner that blends wing and fuselage to create a single lifting body, flew in 2007.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
An investigation found that Boeing had improperly fitted the outsourced fuselage and door plug parts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
Inspections of the fuselage skin will be required, the FAA said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
But that timeframe fell by the wayside after the two fatal crashes, which were followed by a near-catastrophic January 2024 Alaska Airlines flight in which a fuselage panel blew out mid-flight.
From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026
It looked sort of like a bumblebee, with a tiny cockpit perched way back where the vertical tail joined the fuselage.
From "Flying to the Moon: An Astronaut's Story" by Michael Collins
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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.
