airplane

English Online Dictionary. What means airplane‎? What does airplane mean?

English

Alternative forms

• aeroplane, aëroplane (Ireland, South Africa, UK)

Etymology

Alteration of aeroplane (Borrowed from French aéroplane, from Ancient Greek ἀερόπλανος (aeróplanos, “wandering in air”), from ἀήρ (aḗr, “air”) + πλάνος (plános, “wandering”). First used by Joseph Pline in an 1855 patent.[1];[2])

Pronunciation

• enPR: ârʹplān', IPA^(key): /ˈeɹˌpleɪ̯n/, /ˈɛːˌpleɪ̯n/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɛəˌpleɪ̯n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɛɚˌpleɪ̯n/
• Hyphenation: air‧plane
• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)pleɪn

Noun

airplane (plural airplanes)

1. (chiefly US, Canada, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand) A powered heavier-than-air aircraft with fixed wings.

   Hypernym: aircraft

2. (chiefly US, Canada, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand) A game to encourage small children to eat, in which the parent or carer pretends a spoonful of food is an aircraft flying into the child's mouth.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

airplane (third-person singular simple present airplanes, present participle airplaning, simple past and past participle airplaned)

1. (intransitive) To fly in an aeroplane.
2. (transitive) To transport by aeroplane.

See also

• aircraft
• flycraft
• glider
• helicopter

Further reading

• “airplane”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “airplane, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• perianal