aerial

aerial — noun

1. a long thin metal device, often shaped like a rod or a frame of wires, fixed to

1.nounB2
Definition

a long thin metal device, often shaped like a rod or a frame of wires, fixed to a building or vehicle so that a radio or television set can pick up signals or broadcast them.

Example

Mr. Lin climbed onto the roof to fix the bent television aerial after the typhoon.

collocation: television/TV aerial

The old farmhouse had a tall aerial on the chimney for local radio stations.

aerial on + [structure]

Common collocations
  • TV aerial
  • radio aerial
  • rooftop aerial
  • car aerial
  • put up an aerial
  • adjust the aerial
Synonyms
  • antenna

    the standard American word; also used worldwide for built-in antennas in phones, routers, etc.

  • dish

    specifically a curved satellite receiver, not a rod-shaped aerial.

Grammar Patterns

aerial on [building]

put up an aerial

Usage Note

Mainly British English; speakers of American English usually say 'antenna' for the same object. Often appears as a compound: 'television aerial', 'radio aerial', 'car aerial'.

Common Mistakes

I bought a new aerial for my mobile phone.
I bought a new antenna for my mobile phone.
'aerial' is mainly used for rooftop or vehicle antennas that pick up radio or TV broadcasts, not the small built-in antenna inside a phone.

2. a spinning or flipping move that an athlete performs in mid-air after launching

2.nounC1
Definition

a spinning or flipping move that an athlete performs in mid-air after launching off the ground, ramp, or wave, used in sports like skateboarding, snowboarding, skiing, and surfing.

Example

Ravi shot off the half-pipe and landed a clean aerial before the cheering crowd.

land + an aerial

The young surfer practiced aerials for hours on the small waves at Jinshan Beach.

plural use: 'practiced aerials'

Common collocations
  • land an aerial
  • pull off an aerial
  • do an aerial
  • backside aerial
  • huge aerial
Synonyms
  • trick

    more general; covers ground moves and aerial moves alike.

  • stunt

    stresses risk and showmanship rather than the airborne element.

Grammar Patterns

pull off / land an aerial

do an aerial

Usage Note

Common in extreme-sport reporting and the slang of skaters, surfers, and snowboarders. Often combined with a name describing the rotation, such as 'backside aerial', '540 aerial'.

Common Mistakes

She made an aerial in the swimming pool.
She did a flip in the swimming pool.
'aerial' as a sports trick happens only above ground, ramp, or water on a board or skis, not while diving in the air without equipment.

aerial — adjective

Word family

  • aerially
    adverbC2
  • aerialist
    nounC2
  • air
    nounA1
  • airborne
    adjectiveC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

All four words point upward, but they highlight different things. 'Aerial' is the most common in everyday English when something is observed, recorded, or carried out from the air, especially using aircraft or drones — 'aerial photos', 'aerial attack'. 'Airborne' stresses the state of already being up in the air, often used of troops, particles, or diseases ('an airborne infection', 'airborne troops'). 'Overhead' simply describes a position directly above the speaker, without saying anything about how the thing got there ('overhead cables', 'a plane flew overhead'). 'Aeronautical' is technical and refers to the science or industry of flight ('aeronautical engineering'). So you would say 'an aerial view of the city' for a photograph from a drone, but 'overhead power lines' for cables above a road.

aerial ↗airborneoverhead ↗aeronautical

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • aerial view of
  • aerial photograph of
  • from an aerial perspective

Prepositions

Etymology

GreekLatinFrenchEnglish

Borrowed into English in the late 16th century from Latin 'aerius', which itself came from Greek 'aerios', meaning 'belonging to the air'. The root is 'aēr', the Greek and Latin word for air. The adjective sense came first; the radio-antenna noun appeared in the early 20th century when wireless broadcasting equipment first needed a short, vivid name for the metal rod that pulled signals out of the sky. The sports-trick noun is much newer, growing out of late-20th-century skate, surf, and snowboard culture.