sailplane

IPA/ˈseɪl.pleɪn/
IPA/ˈseɪl.pleɪn/

sailplane — noun

  • sailplanesingular
  • sailplanesplural

1. a lightweight unpowered aircraft with long wings, designed to ride rising air cu

1.nounB2
Definition

a lightweight unpowered aircraft with long wings, designed to ride rising air currents and stay aloft, especially for the sport of soaring

Example

Amir spent every weekend at the airfield, working toward his sailplane licence.

sailplane + licence (noun modifier)

The sailplane caught a strong thermal and climbed nearly a thousand metres in minutes.

collocation: caught a thermal

Common collocations
  • sailplane pilot
  • fly a sailplane
  • sailplane competition
  • sailplane design
Synonyms
  • glider

    a broader category — all sailplanes are gliders, but not all gliders are designed for sustained soaring

  • soaring plane

    a less common synonym that emphasises the ability to climb using air currents

Word family

  • sailplaning
    nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

A sailplane is a specific type of glider — one built for soaring, with long slender wings that let it ride thermals and stay up for hours. The word glider is the broader category: it includes primary gliders (basic trainers), motor gliders, and sailplanes. A hang glider is fundamentally different in form — it is a fabric wing stretched over a light frame, and the pilot hangs underneath in a harness rather than sitting inside a cockpit. A light aircraft, by contrast, has an engine; sailplanes are entirely unpowered once released from the tow. If you say 'I spent the afternoon in a sailplane,' you mean a sleek, enclosed cockpit machine designed to climb silently on rising air; 'I went up in a glider' could mean a sailplane or a simpler training glider.

glider ↗hang gliderlight aircraft

Common collocations

Nouns

  • sailplane pilot
  • sailplane competition
  • sailplane club
  • sailplane flight

Adverbs

Phrases

  • fly a sailplane
  • soar in a sailplane
  • launch a sailplane

Prepositions

  • in a sailplane

Etymology

English

Formed from sail and plane, first recorded around 1922. The name captures how the aircraft uses air currents much as a sailing boat uses wind — riding upward-moving air to stay aloft without an engine.

First known use

1922

1922, in the meaning defined above