airship

C2+ Topic:Transportation

US /ˈɛrˌʃɪp/ UK /ˈɛːʃɪp/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a powered lighter-than-air aircraft; a dirigible

The airship drifted silently over the harbor at dawn.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a powered lighter-than-air... dirigible zeppelinblimpaerostatballoon

Word family

Related forms air ship aircraft

Etymology

A compound of air + ship, modeled on earlier 'air' compounds and translating German Luftschiff; first attested in the late 19th century.

āēr Latin scip Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Transportation Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# airship

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈɛrˌʃɪp/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈɛːʃɪp/

## Meanings
1. a powered lighter-than-air aircraft; a dirigible

## Examples
- The airship drifted silently over the harbor at dawn.

## Synonyms
- dirigible
- zeppelin
- blimp
- aerostat
- balloon

## Related Forms
- air
- ship
- aircraft

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: āēr
- Root: scip

## Etymology
A compound of air + ship, modeled on earlier 'air' compounds and translating German Luftschiff; first attested in the late 19th century.

## AI Etymology
airship is a compound of air + ship, modeled on earlier 'air' compounds and translating German Luftschiff; first attested in the late 19th century. Morphologically, the word is transparent as a compound: its parts remain visible in the modern spelling, while the older history of those parts supplies the deeper ancestry. In modern use, the noun sense is "a powered lighter-than-air aircraft; a dirigible", which keeps the etymology connected to the word's present dictionary value rather than treating it as a merely historical label. The wider word family includes related English forms such as air, ship, aircraft, showing how the same base continues to support neighboring English vocabulary. The principal historical forms in the chain include Latin āēr, Old English scip, which anchor the explanation in named linguistic material.

## Topics
- Transportation
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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