quadcopter

noun

quad·​cop·​ter ˈkwäd-ˌkäp-tər 

plural quadcopters

: a drone (see drone entry 1 sense 2) deriving lift from four separate rotors each oriented about a vertical axis : quadrotor

It's a quadcopter, meaning it's a miniature helicopter with four rotors; basically it looks like a giant four-leaf clover designed by Darth Vader.

—Lev Grossman

A remote control quadcopter-type model helicopter flew directly through the U.S. Coast Guard base at the Arcata-Eureka Airport in McKinleyville on Saturday afternoon …

—Eureka Times Standard (California)

Examples of quadcopter in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

HavocAI’s autonomy stack works equally well on aerial (drones, quadcopters, missiles) and terrestrial (trucks, ATVs and rovers) autonomy assets, as evidenced by the demonstrations in Troia, Portugal (discussed above) and Geoje (discussed below). —Sabbir Rangwala, Forbes.com, 30 Jan. 2026

For the test, Auterion used its SLM-10 reference design, inspired by the 10-inch first-person-view quadcopters widely used in Ukraine. —Sujita Sinha, Interesting Engineering, 29 Jan. 2026

There is some excellent location shooting in downtown Los Angeles during the climax, seen through the lens of a bodycam or quadcopter or drone camera. —Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times, 23 Jan. 2026

There is some excellent location-shooting in downtown Los Angeles during the climax, seen through the lens of a bodycam or quadcopter or drone camera. —Katie Walsh, Boston Herald, 22 Jan. 2026

Word History

Etymology

quad entry 5 + -copter (in helicopter entry 1)

First Known Use

2004, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for quadcopter

• adopter
• copter
• helicopter