airbrake
noun
airbrake is a noun meaning “A brake (slowing device) that is operated pneumatically (by air pressure)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled A-I-R-B-R-A-K-E, and it appears about once in every 39 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of airbrake is airbrakes.
What does airbrake mean?
noun
- 1
A brake (slowing device) that is operated pneumatically (by air pressure).
The powerful airbrake of the truck quickly brought it to a stop.
- 2
A movable control surface that extends to increase drag without affecting lift (unlike a spoiler); a device that provides aerodynamic braking.
The BAe 146 and Fokker 100's tailcone-mounted airbrakes allow them to slow down quickly for steep approaches without experiencing the lift degradation seen with spoiler-only aircraft.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of airbrake
- airbrakes plural
- air brake
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is airbrake?
Airbrake appears about once in every 39 million words in written English, the 191,932nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Airbrake in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | Druckluftbremse , Luftbremse |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does airbrake come from?
From air + brake.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).