jumbo jet

IPA/ˌdʒʌm.bəʊ ˈdʒet/
IPA/ˌdʒʌm.boʊ ˈdʒet/

jumbo jet — noun

1. a huge passenger jet, such as the Boeing 747, that carries hundreds of people on

1.nounB1
Definition

a huge passenger jet, such as the Boeing 747, that carries hundreds of people on long flights

Example

Tara watched the jumbo jet climb slowly into the grey morning sky.

The jumbo jet from Tokyo landed smoothly on the long runway.

jumbo jet + from [city]

Common collocations
  • fly on a jumbo jet
  • board a jumbo jet
  • a jumbo jet carries [number] passengers
Synonyms
  • wide-body airliner

    more technical; jumbo jet is informal

  • Boeing 747

    specific model; jumbo jet can refer to any very large passenger jet

  • 747

    shortened form for the Boeing 747 specifically

Antonyms

Usage Note

Often used to refer specifically to the Boeing 747, the aircraft that made the term popular in the late 1960s.

Common Mistakes

We flew on a jumbojet from Hong Kong to London.
We flew on a jumbo jet from Hong Kong to London.
'jumbo jet' is written as two separate words, not one.

Word family

  • jumbo
    adjectiveB2
  • jet
    nounB1
  • jet engine
    nounB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Jumbo jet is the informal, everyday name for a very large passenger jet, especially the Boeing 747. Airliner is a broader, more formal word for any plane that carries paying passengers — a small regional turboprop is an airliner but not a jumbo jet. Jet by itself means any plane powered by jet engines, from a private four-seater to the largest passenger aircraft. Wide-body is a technical term from aviation that describes the cabin width; all jumbo jets are wide-body planes, but not all wide-body planes (like the Airbus A330) are jumbo jets.

wide-bodyairliner ↗jet ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • jumbo jet pilot
  • jumbo jet flight

Phrases

  • travel on a jumbo jet

Prepositions

  • on a jumbo jet
  • by jumbo jet

Etymology

English

Jumbo was the name of a famous large elephant in P.T. Barnum's circus in the 1880s. The word came to mean anything unusually big. Jet refers to a jet engine. Boeing used the name for its 747 model in the 1960s, and the term jumbo jet entered everyday English.