Heavier-than-air

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Weighing more than the volume of air which it displaces. comparative-only

    "And folks laughed at Santos Dumont, at the Wrights, and at all the other fellows, who said they could take a heavier-than-air machine, and skim above the clouds like a bird."

  2. 2
    Of, pertaining to, or using an aircraft which weighs more than the volume of air it displaces. comparative-only

    "Died. John Thomas Moore, 65, who, on a windy day in December 1903, lent a hand putting a flying machine on a runway, was the last surviving witness to the Wright brothers' historic first heavier-than-air flight at Kitty Hawk."

Adjective
  1. 1
    relating to an aircraft heavier than the air it displaces wordnet

Example

More examples

"And folks laughed at Santos Dumont, at the Wrights, and at all the other fellows, who said they could take a heavier-than-air machine, and skim above the clouds like a bird."

More for "heavier-than-air"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.