airlift

noun

air·​lift ˈer-ˌlift 

: a system of transporting cargo or passengers by aircraft often to or from an otherwise inaccessible area

airlift transitive verb

Examples of airlift in a Sentence

an emergency airlift to deliver supplies to the famine victims

Recent Examples on the Web

If jamming a head of state’s flight is possible, so is disrupting a humanitarian airlift, a naval convoy, or a swarm of autonomous drones. —Kapil Kajal, Interesting Engineering, 11 Sep. 2025

They were transferred to different hospitals in Wyoming and Montana via an airlift. —Taylor Ardrey, USA Today, 3 Sep. 2025

One reason is more airlift, and that is going to continue, as four different airlines add new non-stop flights from the U.S. to Australia in the near future. —Larry Olmsted, Forbes.com, 18 Aug. 2025

France previously participated in European humanitarian airlifts in October 2023 to provide aid to Gaza through Jordan and Egypt at the start of the conflict that erupted after Hamas launched an attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people. —Peter Aitken, MSNBC Newsweek, 2 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1943, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for airlift

• adrift
• facelift
• festschrift
• forklift
• gearshift
• makeshift
• redshift
• sealift
• snowdrift
• spendthrift
• clift
• drift

Kids Definition

airlift

noun

air·​lift ˈa(ə)r-ˌlift 

ˈe(ə)r-

: a system of transporting cargo or passengers by aircraft to or from an area otherwise impossible to reach

airlift verb