flight
Pluralflights
Pluralflights
Formsflights, flighting, flighted
- 1A journey made by an aircraft, especially between two cities or countries, usually planned or booked in advance.
The morning flight to Denver was delayed by heavy fog.
Passengers boarded the transatlantic flight after a long wait at the gate.
UsageYou book, take, catch or miss a flight, and travel on a flight: the flight to Denver.
Note
Here the word names a scheduled service as much as a journey. It can carry a number, as in flight 747, leave at a set hour, and be taken or booked: the 5 o'clock flight to London, the flight to Paris. That is the difference from a single act of flying. A bird makes a flight, but a passenger catches one.
- 2The action or process of flying through the air.
Birds are built for flight, with hollow bones and powerful wings.
Engineers filmed dragonflies to learn how they stay steady in flight on gusty days.
UsageOften in the phrase in flight, meaning while flying.
Similarflying, aviation, soaring
Note
Two words share this spelling, and this one comes from the verb fly: Old English flyht, from the Germanic root behind fly itself. A second Old English flyht was formed from flee, and that is the word behind the sense of escape. Because English lets both share one form, a phrase like "the flight of the birds" leans on context to say which is meant.
- 3A particular instance of moving through the air by flying.
The rocket's maiden flight ended in a spectacular success.
Observers timed each flight of the migrating geese across the bay.
- 4The act of fleeing or escaping from danger or pursuit.
The army's sudden flight left the city completely undefended.
Their flight from the burning village took them deep into the forest.
UsageSet phrases: people take flight, and an enemy is put to flight. Also flight from a place or danger.
Similarescape, retreat, exodus, getaway, withdrawal
Note
The escape sense is a second word, formed from flee and separate in origin from the flying sense. Edward FitzGerald's Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859) has morning fling "the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight." The noun also names a person's escape, as in the flight of a refugee.
- 5A continuous series of steps running between one landing and the next.
A steep flight took us up to the dusty attic.
She climbed three flights to reach her apartment on the top floor.
UsageOften a flight of stairs, or just two flights, three flights up.
Similarstaircase, stairway, stairs
Note
Stairs are counted in flights, one for each unbroken run between landings. In Barbara Sleigh's Jessamy (1967), she crosses the landing and goes "up the next flight until she reached the top." The word stretches easily to the floor the stairs lead to, which is why "How many flights is it up?" asks about floors as much as steps.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Barbara Sleigh wrote Jessamy, first published in 1967. openlibrary.org
- Jessamy contains the quoted narration about a female character crossing the landing and ascending the next flight. en.wiktionary.org
- 6A set of small servings of several beers, wines or other drinks, served together so they can be tasted and compared.
The taproom poured us a flight of four seasonal ales.
He picked a flight of ciders to sample before choosing a pint.
UsageUsually a flight of ales or wines, or a beer flight, a wine flight.
- 7A unit within an air force, typically made up of several aircraft and their crews.
The squadron leader commanded a flight of six fighters.
Her flight was scrambled to intercept the incoming bombers.
Similarformation
Less common meanings
- 8A spell of imaginative or fanciful thinking.
Her flight of fancy carried her off to imaginary kingdoms.
In a sudden flight of imagination, he pictured the whole city underwater.
UsageAlmost always a flight of fancy or a flight of (the) imagination. On its own, the word reads as flying or escape.
- 9The curving path through the air taken by an arrow or other projectile.
The archer watched the flight of her arrow arc toward the target.
A sudden crosswind altered the flight of the javelin.
Similartrajectory, path, course, arc
- 10A group of birds flying together as a single flock, used especially of doves and swallows.
A flight of swallows wheeled above the chimney before settling.
The keeper released a flight of doves at the start of the ceremony.
Similarflock
- 11One of the feathers or fins fitted to the back of a dart or arrow to keep its path through the air steady.
He replaced the worn flight on his favorite dart before the match.
A damaged flight can send an arrow veering off course.
Note
This is the older, feathered sense: the flights of an arrow are the feathers set at its tail to keep its path steady. Do not read it into Bassanio's "his fellow of the selfsame flight" in The Merchant of Venice, where flight means an arrow of the same kind and range. Today the word also covers the plastic or nylon fins fitted to modern darts.
- 12The pace, trajectory, and drift that a spinning ball takes on as it travels through the air.
By varying the flight, the spinner kept the batsmen guessing all afternoon.
The captain praised the subtle flight that earned three quick wickets.
Note
Cricket uses the word for everything a spinner does to the ball between hand and pitch: how fast it travels, what path it takes, how far it drifts. Commentators speak of a bowler varying the flight to keep batsmen guessing. The same idea becomes a verb in to flight the ball.
- 13To throw, kick or bowl a ball so that it travels higher and more slowly through the air (in cricket, usually with extra spin).
The midfielder loves to flight the ball into the box for tall strikers.
Spin bowlers who flight the ball invite the batter to come down the pitch and attack.
UsageThe past form is flighted: she flighted the free kick, a flighted delivery.
Similarloft
Note
Sports writing has carried the cricket verb into other games, such as football. Stuart James, reporting Leicester's win over Sevilla in 2017, writes that Riyad Mahrez "flighted the free-kick that followed to the far post." It implies a lofted, hanging delivery rather than a flat, driven one.
- 14A group of canal locks set only a short distance apart from one another.
The famous flight raises boats more than two hundred feet over a single hillside.
It took the narrowboat most of the morning to work up the flight of sixteen canal locks.
- 15Moving, or able to move, with great speed.
Note
An adjective long out of use, though it is spelled exactly like the everyday noun for flying and comes from the same Old English flyht. Because the noun is so familiar, a modern reader who meets flight as an adjective in older writing can easily misread it as a noun. In current English the idea is carried by fast, swift or fleet.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Flight is an obsolete adjective meaning fast, swift or fleet. en.wiktionary.org
- The adjective has the same spelling and Old English origin as the noun denoting flying. en.wiktionary.org
- 16A floor of a building reached by stairs or an escalator.
- 17An advertising campaign that runs for a fixed length of time.
- 18A folded sheet of paper shaped to glide through the air; a paper airplane.
- 19The helical ridge or blade of material that makes up a screw's thread.
- 20A numbered subclass of a warship class that marks step-by-step improvements to the original design.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of flight apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origins
From Middle English flight, from Old English flyht, from Proto-West Germanic *fluhti, derived from *fleuganą ("to fly"), which goes back to the Proto-Indo-European root *plewk- ("to fly"), an enlargement of *plew- ("flow"). It can be analyzed as fly + -t, and is cognate with Dutch vlucht and German Flucht.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 7 facts
- Flight descends through Middle English flight and Old English flyht from Proto-West Germanic *fluhti. en.wiktionary.org
- The reconstructed noun derives ultimately from *fleuganą, meaning “to fly.” en.wiktionary.org
- *Fleuganą goes back to Proto-Indo-European *plewk-, with the meaning “to fly.” en.wiktionary.org
- *Plewk- is an enlargement of *plew-, meaning “flow.” en.wiktionary.org
- Flight can be analyzed as fly plus -t. en.wiktionary.org
- Flight is cognate with Dutch vlucht. en.wiktionary.org
- Flight is cognate with German Flucht, specifically the word associated with flying, alignment and a flock of birds. en.wiktionary.org
Proto-West Germanic *fluhti, from *fleuhaną ("to flee"), gave Old English flyht and then the Middle English word; it can be read as flee + -t. Dutch vlucht and German Flucht are cognates.