Aeroplane

How to spell aeroplane

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce aeroplane

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does aeroplane mean?

1. nounA powered flying vehicle with fixed wings, used to carry passengers or cargo through the air.

Aeroplane in a sentence

• The aeroplane taxied slowly toward the runway before takeoff.

• She booked a window seat so she could watch the aeroplane climb above the clouds.

Where does aeroplane come from?

Language of origin: French

The word came into English from French aeroplane, a term coined in the mid nineteenth century for a flying machine. Its first element is the Greek aer, meaning 'air', the same root that gives us 'aerial' and 'aerobics'. The second element traces to the Latin planus, meaning 'flat' or 'level', and originally referred to the broad, flat lifting surface of a wing rather than the whole craft. By the late 1860s English writers were using 'aeroplane' for the wing itself, and after the Wright brothers' flights of 1903 the word settled into its modern sense of the complete powered aircraft. The British kept the older French-flavoured spelling with the 'aero-' opening, while American usage simplified it to 'airplane', which is why the tricky 'aero' beginning is the spot to watch in the British form.

How the word is built

• aero- (from Greek aer: air)
• -plane (a flat or wing surface, from Latin planus: flat)

British and American spelling

Aeroplane is the British spelling. American English spells it airplane.