ultralight

American  

[uhl-truh-lahyt, uhl-truh-lahyt, uhl-truh-lahyt] / ˌʌl trəˈlaɪt, ˈʌl trəˌlaɪt, ˈʌl trəˌlaɪt /

adjective

1. extremely lightweight in comparison with others of its kind.

   a car with an ultralight engine.

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noun

1. something that is ultralight.

2. a small, light, inexpensive single-seat airplane that is essentially a motorized hang glider.

Etymology

Origin of ultralight

First recorded in 1970–75; ultra- + light ²

Example Sentences

In Santa Cruz, researchers and conservationists also deployed ultralight radio tags to better understand how butterflies move between overwintering groves, information that could help improve how overwintering habitat is managed.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 30, 2026

These particles, called ultralight bosons, are predicted by some theories that go beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, which describes and classifies all known elementary particles.

From Science Daily • Oct. 30, 2025

Pivotal’s eVTOL is the first ultralight electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft to reach the consumer market.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 24, 2025

Those include “fuzzy” or “warm” dark matter, composed of hypothetical, ultralight particles called axions, and even a whole “dark sector” of invisible particles and forces that would create galaxies with a different footprint.

From New York Times • Jan. 26, 2024

Only the unique combination of the two of them could have produced the silk sleigh: a sleek, ultralight craft buoyed by ulola gas.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor