parachutist

parachutist — noun

1. a person who leaps from an aircraft and floats safely down to the ground using a

1.nounB2
Definition

a person who leaps from an aircraft and floats safely down to the ground using a wide piece of cloth strapped to their back — for example, a sport jumper or a soldier on a combat drop.

Example

Marcus is a weekend parachutist who jumps from small planes over the Nevada desert.

subject complement: be a parachutist

The army trained two hundred parachutists for the night mission behind enemy lines.

collocation: train parachutists

Common collocations
  • weekend parachutist
  • team of parachutists
  • parachutist drifts down
Synonyms
  • skydiver

    more common in sport contexts; emphasises free-fall before opening the parachute

  • paratrooper

    specifically a soldier who jumps; never used for sport

  • jumper

    general and informal; often needs context to be clear

Usage Note

Subject is usually a sportsperson or a soldier; the word is rarely used for an emergency jumper, who is normally called a 'jumper' or simply 'pilot who bailed out'.

Common Mistakes

The parachutist flew the plane over the city.
The pilot flew the plane over the city.
a parachutist jumps out of the plane; they do not fly it.
She is a parachutist who skis down mountains.
She is a skydiver who skis down mountains.
'parachutist' specifically involves a parachute, not other equipment.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All three words describe someone who jumps from an aircraft using a parachute, but each has its own typical setting. 'Parachutist' is the broadest and most neutral term; it covers both sport and military jumpers, and is the word a news report might use when the context is not yet clear. 'Skydiver' belongs almost entirely to sport, where the long free-fall before opening the canopy is part of the thrill — you would not call a soldier on a combat drop a skydiver. 'Paratrooper', by contrast, is strictly military: a paratrooper is a trained soldier whose job is to land behind enemy lines and fight. So a club member jumping at the weekend is a skydiver, a soldier dropping into a war zone is a paratrooper, and either of them, in a general description, is a parachutist.

parachutist ↗skydiverparatrooper

Common collocations

Nouns

  • parachutist team
  • parachutist training
  • parachutist display

Phrases

  • a team of parachutists
  • drop a parachutist
  • land safely as a parachutist

Prepositions

  • parachutist from (an aircraft / a plane)
  • parachutist over (a town / a field)

Etymology

ItalianFrenchEnglish

Formed in early 19th-century English from 'parachute' plus the agent ending '-ist'. 'Parachute' itself was borrowed from French in the 1780s, built from 'para-' (meaning 'against' or 'protecting from', from Italian) and 'chute' (French for 'fall'). The whole word therefore literally suggests a device that protects against a fall, and 'parachutist' simply marks the person who uses one.