airliner

noun

air·​lin·​er ˈer-ˌlī-nər How to pronounce airliner (audio)
: an airplane operated by an airline

Examples of airliner in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Minutes after takeoff, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired two surface-to-air missiles at the civilian airliner, killing everyone aboard. Nuri Kino, MSNBC Newsweek, 20 June 2025 The airliner is the kit sponsor of some of the most prominent soccer clubs in the world—Arsenal, AC Milan, Real Madrid, Olympique Lyonnais and Benfica—and is the title sponsor of England’s FA Cup. Jason Clinkscales, Sportico.com, 19 June 2025 The small upturned tips of each wing are called winglets, and although they weren’t added to the big airliners until the late 1980s, they were invented more than a century earlier. Ian Rose, Smithsonian Magazine, 10 June 2025 Boeing has been working on retrofitting 747s that were originally built for a now-defunct Russian airliner. Chris Megerian, Chicago Tribune, 12 May 2025 See All Example Sentences for airliner

Word History

First Known Use

1908, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of airliner was in 1908

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Cite this Entry

“Airliner.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/airliner. Accessed 10 Jul. 2025.

Kids Definition

airliner

noun
air·​lin·​er -ˌlī-nər How to pronounce airliner (audio)
: an airplane operated by an airline

More from Merriam-Webster on airliner

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