airship

IPA/ˈeəʃɪp/
IPA/ˈerʃɪp/

airship — noun

  • airshipsingular
  • airshipsplural

1. A very large flying vehicle with a long balloon-like body filled with a light ga

1.nounB1
Definition

A very large flying vehicle with a long balloon-like body filled with a light gas, powered by engines, and used mainly in the past for carrying people or goods.

Example

Nina watched a film showing a large airship drifting slowly across the sky at dusk.

showing a large airship drifting slowly

Javier visited a museum where the history of airship travel is explained with old photographs.

the history of airship travel

Common collocations
  • fly an airship
  • ride on an airship
  • airship travel
  • an enormous airship
  • an airship flew across
Synonyms
  • blimp

    A blimp is a smaller, non-rigid airship with no internal metal frame; all blimps are airships, but not all airships are blimps.

  • zeppelin

    A zeppelin is a specific type of rigid airship with a metal frame, named after the German inventor Count von Zeppelin.

Usage Note

Airship travel was most common in the early 20th century and declined after several well-known accidents.

Common Mistakes

We flew by airship to Paris on a 747.
We flew by airship to Paris on the Graf Zeppelin.
Airships are non-rigid or semi-rigid lighter-than-air craft, not jet airliners.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four words describe lighter-than-air flying craft, but they differ in structure and use. An airship is a powered, steerable aircraft with engines, unlike a balloon, which drifts freely with the wind. A blimp is a small, non-rigid airship (no internal frame), while a zeppelin is a rigid airship with a metal skeleton — the Hindenburg was a zeppelin, not a blimp. In everyday speech, 'airship' is the general term; 'blimp' is more common for modern advertising craft; 'zeppelin' refers specifically to early 20th-century German models. If you see a slow, cigar-shaped flying object with engines, you can call it an airship. If you see one at a sports event with a logo on its side, it is almost certainly a blimp.

airship ↗blimpzeppelinballoon ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • an airship flew across ___
  • the history of airship travel

Phrases

  • by airship
  • fly an airship
  • ride on an airship

Etymology

GreekLatinFrenchEnglish

A compound of 'air' (the invisible gas we breathe, from Old French air, Latin aer, Greek aēr) and 'ship' (a large boat, from Old English scip). The word entered English around 1819, modelled loosely on the French 'navire aérien' (aerial ship), to describe the new class of powered, lighter-than-air flying machines.