airplane

noun

air·plane | \ ˈer-ˌplān

Definition of airplane

: a powered heavier-than-air aircraft with fixed wings from which it derives most of its lift

Illustration of airplane

airplane: 1 weather radar, 2 cockpit, 3 jet engine, 4 engine pod, 5 pylon, 6 wing, 7 vertical stabilizer, 8 rudder, 9, 10 tabs, 11 elevator, 12 horizontal stabilizer, 13 inboard flap, 14 inboard spoiler, 15, 16 tabs, 17 aileron, 18 outboard flap, 19 outboard spoiler, 20 sound suppressor, 21 thrust reverser, 22 cabin air intake, 23 fuselage, 24 nose landing gear

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Examples of airplane in a Sentence

my uncle learned how to fly an airplane during World War II

Recent Examples on the Web

Four airplanes — two Boeing 787s, a Boeing 737 and an Airbus 340 — were on the taxiway awaiting clearance for takeoff. — Matthias Gafni, SFChronicle.com, "SFO near-miss: Capt. ‘Sully’ pushes bill, says ‘biggest threats are runway related’," 8 Aug. 2019 Other jokes in Spade's monologue were targeted at the Boeing 737 airplane, service animals, the Fortnite World Cup, Planned Parenthood and Harvey Weinstein. — Katherine Schaffstall, The Hollywood Reporter, "David Spade Pokes Fun at Jeffrey Epstein, Caitlyn Jenner in 'Lights Out' Premiere," 30 July 2019 There was a little too much talk of packing sidearms and confronting looters, and about which billionaire had donated the use of his airplane. — Emily Witt, The New Yorker, "A Haphazard Recovery in the Bahamas," 16 Sep. 2019 Words and phrases are passed from character to character, and instead of moving forward in time, the book circles like an airplane (one of its recurrent images). — Christine Smallwood, Harper's magazine, "Novel, Essay, Poem," 16 Sep. 2019 Lovely though Deakins’s photography is, the shot that stuck out to me the most was one of lint floating in the recycled atmosphere of an airplane, a mundane bit of ephemera representing Theo’s malaise. — David Sims, The Atlantic, "The Goldfinch Is Star-Studded, Pretty, and Lifeless," 12 Sep. 2019 Top Gun was filmed with the cooperation of the U.S. Navy, and with the exception of exploding airplanes, all of the footage was of real aircraft. — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "You Have to Watch This Stunning Recreation of 'Top Gun' in a Flight Simulator," 11 Sep. 2019 Tim fell asleep to the sound of airplanes, awoke to more of the same, and went down to ingest a hardboiled egg and two rubber pancakes from the complimentary breakfast buffet. — David Canfield, EW.com, "Stephen King's The Institute is out now. Read this juicy excerpt first," 10 Sep. 2019 Boeing, for example, uses Zebra's tech to monitor the movements of its workforce painting airplanes. — David Kravets, Ars Technica, "How the NFL—not the NSA—is impacting data gathering well beyond the gridiron," 1 Sep. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'airplane.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

7 Oct 2019

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Time Traveler for airplane

The first known use of airplane was in 1906

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More Definitions for airplane

airplane

noun

English Language Learners Definition of airplane

US : a machine that has wings and an engine and that flies through the air

See the full definition for airplane in the English Language Learners Dictionary

airplane

noun

air·plane | \ ˈer-ˌplān

Kids Definition of airplane

: an aircraft with wings which do not move, that is heavier than air, is driven by a propeller or jet engine, and is supported by the action of the air against its wings