noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A wind that blows in the same direction as the course taken by an aircraft, sailing ship, bird, etc.; a following wind.
2. 2
   wind blowing in the same direction as the path of a ship or aircraft wordnet
3. 3
   A force that accelerates progress. broadly, figuratively

Verb

1. 1
   Of a wind, to blow on a windmill or wind turbine in such a way that wind pressure is exerted on the wrong side of the sail or turbine assembly.

Synonyms

All synonyms

fair wind

Antonyms

All antonyms

foul windheadwind

Example

More examples

"One of his election promises was more tailwind on bicycle paths."

Etymology

From tail + wind.

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