aircraft

English

Etymology

From air +‎ -craft.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɛə.kɹɑːft/, /ˈɛː.kɹɑːft/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɛəɹ.kɹæft/, /ˈɛːɹ.kɹæft/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛəkɹɑːft, -ɛːkɹɑːft, -ɛəɹkɹæft, -ɛːɹkɹæft

Noun

aircraft (plural aircraft)

1. A vehicle capable of atmospheric flight due to interaction with the air, such as buoyancy or lift.

   Hypernym: vehicle

   Hyponyms: airplane, helicopter

   light aircraft

   aircraft manufacturer

   aircraft licence

   • 1949, World Health Organization, Report on the 1st- Session May 10-15‎^[1], page 19:

     6.2.3.2.2. For aircraft having pressurized cabins, the disinsection of cabins and annexes, cockpit and annexes, is to be carried out after the embarkation of passengers and crew and the closing of the doors and windscreen[.]

   • 2025 April 10, Brad Lendon, “‘Frankenjet’ stealth fighter made from two wrecked warplanes joins US Air Force fleet”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     The US Air Force has 383 F-35As in its fleet, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
     The F-35A is one of the three versions of the US military’s stealth fighter. The Marine Corps flies the F-35B – a short take-off, vertical landing aircraft – and the Navy flies the F-35C, designed for aircraft carrier operations.

Usage notes

• The nonstandard plural form aircrafts is in use among non-native speakers of English and colloquially.

Hyponyms

• See also Thesaurus:aircraft

Derived terms

• aircraft attitude
• aircraft carrier
• aircraft engine
• aircraft graveyard
• aircrafthand
• aircraftlike
• aircraftman
• aircraft movement
• aircraftsman
• aircraft station
• aircraftswoman
• aircraftwoman
• airprox
• anti-aircraft
• attack aircraft
• cargo aircraft
• dual-capable aircraft
• fighter aircraft
• liaison aircraft
• model aircraft
• nuclear aircraft
• parasite aircraft
• rocket aircraft
• rotary-wing aircraft
• tanker aircraft

Related terms

• spacecraft
• watercraft

Translations

machine capable of atmospheric flight

• Afrikaans: lugvaartuig
• Albanian: avion (sq) m
• Arabic: طَائِرَة (ar) f (ṭāʔira)
• Armenian: օդանավ (hy) (ōdanav)
• Bashkir: осҡос (osqos)
• Basque: hegazkinen
• Bengali: বিমান (bn) (biman)
• Bulgarian: самолет (bg) m (samolet)
• Burmese: လေယာဉ်ပျံ (my) (leyanypyam)
• Catalan: aeronau (ca) f
• Chichewa: ndege
• Chinese:

  Hokkien: 飛行器 / 飞行器 (hui-hêng-khì)

  Mandarin: 航空器 (zh) (hángkōngqì), 飛機 / 飞机 (zh) (fēijī)

• Czech: letadlo (cs) n
• Danish: luftfartøj (da) n
• Dutch: luchtvaartuig (nl) n
• Dzongkha: གནམ་གྲུ (gnam gru)
• Esperanto: aerveturilo
• Estonian: õhusõiduk
• Faroese: flogfar flúgvari
• Finnish: lentokone (fi), ilma-alus (fi)
• French: aéronef (fr) m
• Galician: aeronaves m
• Georgian: თვითმფრინავი (ka) (tvitmprinavi)
• German: Luftfahrzeug (de) n; (airplane) Flugzeug (de) n
• Greek: αεροσκάφος (el) n (aeroskáfos)
• Hebrew: כְּלִי טַיִס (he) m (kli-tayis)
• Hindi: विमान (hi) (vimān)
• Hungarian: légi jármű, repülőgép (hu) (airplane), repülő (hu) (colloquial)
• Icelandic: loftfar n
• Ido: aviacilo (io)
• Indonesian: pesawat udara
• Interlingua: aeronave, avion
• Irish: aerárthach m
• Italian: aeromobile (it) m
• Japanese: 航空機 (ja) (こうくうき, kōkūki), 飛行機 (ja) (ひこうき, hikōki)
• Javanese: ꦥꦭ꧀ꦮꦲꦁꦒꦼꦒꦤ (palwa anggegana)
• Kannada: ವಿಮಾನ (kn) (vimāna)
• Kazakh: әуе көлігі (äue kölıgı)
• Korean: 항공기(航空器) (ko) (hanggonggi)
• Latin: aërium vehīculum n (New Latin)
• Latvian: lidmašīna f, lidaparāts m
• Luhya: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: летало n (letalo)
• Malay: pesawat (ms)
• Malayalam: ആകാശനൗക (ml) (ākāśanauka), വിമാനം (ml) (vimānaṁ)
• Maltese: ajruplan
• Marathi: विमान n (vimān)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: агаарын хөлөг (agaaryn xölög)

• Navajo: chidí naatʼaʼí
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: luftfartøy (no) n

  Nynorsk: luftfartøy n

• Ojibwe: bemisemagak
• Pannonian Rusyn: лєтадло n (ljetadlo), воздухоплїв m (vozduxopljiv), лєтачка f (ljetačka)
• Papiamentu: aeroplanu
• Persian: هواپیما (fa) (havâpeymâ)
• Polish: statek powietrzny m, aerodyna (pl) f (dated)
• Portuguese: aeronave (pt) f
• Romanian: aeronavă (ro) f, aparat de zbor n, aparat zburător n
• Russian: лета́тельный аппара́т (ru) m (letátelʹnyj apparát), возду́шное су́дно (ru) n (vozdúšnoje súdno), самолёт (ru) m (samoljót)
• Sanskrit: विमान (sa) (vimāna)
• Serbo-Croatian: zrakoplov (sh) m

  Cyrillic: лѐтелица f / лѐтјелица f

  Roman: lètelica (sh) f / lètjelica (sh) f, vazduhoplov (sh), zrȁkoplōv (sh) m (Croatia)

• Slovak: lietadlo (sk) n
• Slovene: letal n
• Spanish: aeronave (es) f
• Swedish: luftfartyg (sv) n, luftfarkost (sv) c
• Tagalog: eroplano (tl)
• Tajik: ҳавопаймоӣ (havopaymoi)
• Tamil: விமானம் (ta) (vimāṉam)
• Telugu: విమానము (te) (vimānamu)
• Thai: อากาศยาน (th) (aa-gàat-sà-yaan)
• Tibetan: གནམ་གྲུ (gnam gru) (lit. sky-ship), ནམ་མཁར་འཕུར་སྐྱོད་ཐུབ་པའི་གྲུ (nam mkhar 'phur skyod thub pa'i gru) (lit. vessel that can fly in the heavens)
• Tok Pisin: balus (tpi)
• Turkish: hava taşıtı (tr), hava aracı (tr)
• Ukrainian: літа́льний апара́т m (litálʹnyj aparát), пові́тря́не судно́ n (povítrjáne sudnó); літак (uk) m (litak) (airplane)
• Urdu: طیارہ (teyāra), ہوائی جہاز (hawāī-jahāz), جہاز (jahāz), ہوا پیما (hawā-pemā)
• Uzbek: samolyot (uz)
• Vietnamese: phi cơ (vi) (飛機), máy bay (vi) (𣛠𩙻)
• Võro: aeroplaan
• West Frisian: fleantúch n, fleanmasine
• Yakut: самолет (samolet)

See also

• aeroplane (UK), airplane (US)