# flight

> English word · Noun · IPA /flaɪt/ · frequency rank #1,453

## Definitions
1. The act of flying.
2. An instance of flying.
3. A collective term for doves or swallows.
4. A trip made by an aircraft, particularly one between two cities or countries, which is often planned or reserved in advance.
5. A series of stairs between landings.
6. A group of canal locks with a short distance between them
7. A floor which is reached by stairs or escalators.
8. The feathers on an arrow or dart used to help it follow an even path.
9. A paper airplane.
10. The movement of a spinning ball through the air, with its speed, trajectory and drift.
11. The ballistic trajectory of an arrow or other projectile.
12. An aerodynamic surface designed to guide such a projectile's trajectory.
13. An air force unit.
14. A numbered subclass of a given class of warship, denoting incremental modernizations to the original design.
15. Several sample glasses of a specific wine varietal or other beverage. The pours are smaller than a full glass and the flight will generally include three to five different samples.
16. A comparable sample of beers or other drinks.
17. The shaped material forming the thread of a screw.
18. An episode of imaginative thinking or dreaming.
19. An advertising campaign of fixed length.

## Etymology
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *plew-
Proto-Indo-European *plewk-der.
Proto-Germanic *fleuganą
Proto-West Germanic *fleugan
Proto-Indo-European *-tis
Proto-Germanic *-þiz
Proto-West Germanic *-þi
Proto-West Germanic *fluhti
Old English flyht
Middle English flight
English flight
From Middle English flight, from Old English flyht (“flight”), from Proto-West Germanic *fluhti (“flight”), derived from *fleuganą (“to fly”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“to fly”), enlargement of *plew- (“flow”). Analyzable as fly + -t (variant of -th).
Cognate with West Frisian flecht (“flight”), Dutch vlucht (“flight”), German Flucht (“flight”) (etymology 2).

## Easily confused with
- **flint** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flight-vs-flint)
- **flirt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flight-vs-flirt)
- **fought** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flight-vs-fought)
- **fright** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flight-vs-fright)
- **flights** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flight-vs-flights)
- **freight** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flight-vs-freight)
- **fight** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fight-vs-flight)
- **fights** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fights-vs-flight)

## Common misspellings (10)
`fflight`, `filght`, `flgiht`, `fligght`, `flighht`, `flightt`, `fligth`, `flihgt`, `fllight`, `lfight`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/flight