Hangar

How to spell hangar

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce hangar

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hangar mean?

1. nounA large building where aircraft are housed, maintained, or repaired.

Hangar in a sentence

• The mechanics towed the jet back into the hangar before the storm.

• Each hangar at the airfield can shelter two cargo planes overnight.

Where does hangar come from?

Language of origin: French

This word arrived in English from French in the early 1800s, where hangar meant a shed or open-sided shelter. The French word itself is older, recorded in the medieval period for a structure used to store carts, tools, or animals, and its deeper origin is debated. One widely accepted explanation traces it to a Frankish compound roughly meaning an enclosure beside a house, combining elements close to haim 'home, dwelling' and gard 'enclosure, yard'; another links it to Medieval Latin angarium, a shed for shoeing horses. Whatever the precise source, the meaning narrowed sharply once aviation began, and by the early twentieth century a hangar specifically meant the large building that houses aircraft. The spelling trap is the ending: it is -ar, not the -er of a clothes hanger, even though the two words sound identical, so remembering its French parentage helps fix the unusual -ar.

How the word is built

• hangar (a single root borrowed whole from French, meaning a covered shelter; no English prefix or suffix)

Words that sound like hangar

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• hanger: A shaped frame, usually of wire, wood, or plastic, used to hold a garment so it can be hung up.