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

The smaller reconnaissance drones appear to be one-time-use FPV-style quadcopters carrying a munition beneath the airframe. — Vikram Mittal, Forbes.com, 17 July 2026

According to the paper's visibility metric, the finished drone is about 10 times harder to spot than a standard quadcopter. — New Atlas, 17 July 2026

This aims to remove any hiding place and expose Palestinians to fire from military snipers or from armed quadcopter drones that patrol the dune landscape. — Literary Hub, 16 July 2026

According to the study’s testing, the new design is ten times harder to see than a conventional quadcopter. — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 16 July 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