airplane mode

noun

variants US airplane mode or British aeroplane mode

: an operating mode for an electronic device (such as a mobile phone) in which the device does not connect to wireless networks and cannot send or receive communications (such as calls or text messages) or access the Internet but remains usable for other functions

Today [in 2009], airlines may let passengers use newer-model cell phones in what's called "airplane" mode, which essentially disables the transmission function so they can't make calls. … FAA guidance allows cell phone calls once the plane has landed and is taxiing to the gate.

—Air Safety Week

Now, I do all I can to ensure that I have a calm and productive morning. I keep my phone in the kitchen overnight, often not turning it off airplane mode until I start work.

—Benjamin Spall

Examples of airplane mode in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Keep your phone on airplane mode to reduce the number of signals your phone emits and limit tracking. —Kristen Taketa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Feb. 2026

Prosecutors Vassar and Hogan also introduced to the jury evidence of location data police extracted from his cellphone and suggested there was an absence of location data at the time of the killings because the defendant had placed his phone in airplane mode. —Emerson Clarridge updated February 6, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 7 Feb. 2026

But no matter your highly understandable reason for not having airplane mode on your to-do list, your failure to attend to your phone before sailaway can cost you. —Erica Silverstein, Travel + Leisure, 6 Feb. 2026

Turning your phone off or using airplane mode cuts off wireless communication while still allowing alarms to work. —Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 3 Feb. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

2002, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for airplane mode

• photocathode
• photodiode
• abode
• anode
• barcode
• bestowed
• boatload
• borrowed
• carload
• caseload
• cathode
• commode

Kids Definition

airplane mode

noun

: an operating mode for an electronic device (as a smartphone) in which the device does not connect to wireless networks and cannot send or receive communications (as calls) or access the Internet but is usable for other functions