Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A colorless, odorless, tasteless, gaseous mixture, mainly nitrogen (approximately 78 percent) and oxygen (approximately 21 percent) with lesser amounts of argon, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, neon, helium, and other gases.
  • noun This mixture with varying amounts of moisture and particulate matter, enveloping the earth; the atmosphere.
  • noun The sky; the firmament.
  • noun A giant void; nothingness.
  • noun An atmospheric movement; a breeze or wind.
  • noun Sports A height achieved by a jump or as part of an airborne maneuver, as in skateboarding or snowboarding.
  • noun Aircraft.
  • noun Public utterance; vent.
  • noun The medium of broadcast radio or television.
  • noun A manner of behaving that conveys an impression.
  • noun A distinctive quality or appearance; an aura.
  • noun The general environment or condition, as in attitudes and ideas.
  • noun Affected behavior; affectation: synonym: affectation.
  • noun A melody or tune, especially in the soprano or tenor range.
  • noun A solo with or without accompaniment.
  • noun Air conditioning.
  • noun Archaic Breath.
  • intransitive verb To expose to the air in order to dry, cool, or freshen; ventilate.
  • intransitive verb To make known to others; express publicly: synonym: voice.
  • intransitive verb To broadcast on television or radio.
  • intransitive verb To be broadcast on television or radio.
  • adjective Of or relating to the air or the movement of air.
  • adjective Existing or living in the air; aerial.
  • adjective Powered by compressed air.
  • adjective Containing or inflated by air.
  • adjective Of or relating to aircraft or aeronautics.
  • adjective Of or relating to the broadcast or transmission of radio or television signals.
  • adjective Imaginary or unreal.
  • idiom Football (air one out) To throw a long pass.
  • idiom (in the air) Abroad; prevalent.
  • idiom (up in the air) Not yet decided; uncertain.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In music: A rhythmical melody; a tune consisting of single successive notes divided into groups which, in duration, have some definite ratio to one another, recognizable by the ear. A song or piece of poetry for singing: as, the air, “Sound an Alarm.” The soprano part in a harmonized piece of music. Also called aria. Any piece of poetry.
  • noun The peculiar look, appearance, and bearing of a person: as, the air of a youth; a graceful air; a lofty air.
  • noun The general character or complexion of anything; appearance; semblance.
  • noun plural Affected manner; manifestation of pride or vanity; assumed haughtiness: chiefly in the phrases to put on airs, to give one's self airs.
  • noun plural The artificial motions or carriage of a horse.
  • noun In painting, that which expresses action, manner, gesture, or attitude.
  • noun The respirable fluid which surrounds the earth and forms its atmosphere.
  • noun In old chemistry, gas: still in use in this sense in foundries and machine-shops, especially for such gases as are mingled with air or formed from it, as the gases from a furnace.
  • noun A movement of the atmosphere; a light breeze: usually in the plural.
  • noun Utterance abroad; publication; publicity.
  • noun Hence Intelligence; information; advice.
  • noun The graphic representation, as in a painting, of the effect of the atmospheric medium through which natural objects are viewed.
  • noun In the Gr. Ch., a very thin veil spread over both the paten and the chalice, in addition to the paten and chalice veils. Also called nephele.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Partly from Middle English air, gas, atmosphere (from Old French, from Latin āēr, from Greek; see wer- in Indo-European roots) and partly from French air, nature, quality, place of origin (from Latin ager, place, field; see agriculture, and Latin ārea, open space, threshing floor; see area). N., sense 8, from French air, tune, from Italian aria; see aria.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English air, eir ("gas, atmosphere"), from Anglo-Norman aeir, eyer, Old French aire, eir, from Latin āēr, from Ancient Greek ἀήρ (aér, "wind, atmosphere"). Displaced native Middle English luft, lift ("air") (from Old English lyft ("air, atmosphere")), Middle English loft ("air, upper region") (from Old Norse lopt ("air, sky, loft")). More at lift, loft.

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Examples

  • I have computed it, using 1.406 for the ratio of the specific heat of air at constant pressure to that at constant volume, 491. 13° F. as the temperature of melting ice above the zero of the _air_ thermometer, 26,214 feet for the height of a homogeneous atmosphere, and 0.2375 for the specific heat of air, and I find, by means of these constants, 778.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 647, May 26, 1888 Various

  • "To visitation of the impassive air," is a sonorous verse; but it is not Dante's verse, unless _all detached_ means _on every side is open to visitation_, and _impassive air_ means

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 118, August, 1867 Various

  • This cylinder gives its full volume of air, and apparently a little more at times, because the air is admitted by a concentrated inlet in which free _air is always moving in one direction_.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 799, April 25, 1891 Various

  • After about the year 1790, it was necessary to think of combustions in the air as combinations of a particular gas, or _air_, with the burning substances, or some portions of them.

    The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry M. M. Pattison Muir

  • Of the 1588 rooms 441 were dark, with no ventilation to the outer air except through other rooms; 635 rooms gave upon twilight “air shafts.

    V. “Druv into Decency” 1902

  • The quantity of air taken in with a single inspiration in quiet breathing (_tidal air_) is about 20-30 cubic inches.

    Voice Production in Singing and Speaking Based on Scientific Principles (Fourth Edition, Revised and Enlarged) Wesley Mills 1881

  • When trustees and patrons realize that pure air is absolutely essential to health, and that their children are being slowly poisoned by the foul air of school rooms, then they will construct our halls of learning with a due regard for the laws of hygiene, and students will not droop under their tasks on account of the absence of Nature's most bountiful gift, _pure air_.

    The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English or, Medicine Simplified, 54th ed., One Million, Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand Ray Vaughn Pierce 1877

  • It appears that they had long contemplated, with philosophical interest, the floating and ascent of clouds in the air, and when they heard of or read Cavendish's theories in regard to _different kinds of air_, it at once struck them that by enclosing some gas lighter than the atmosphere in a bag, a weight might be raised from the earth into the air.

    Up in the Clouds Balloon Voyages 1859

  • 'Ef you want to know,' sez he, 'open your winder of a mornin' et ary season, and you'll larn thet the best of perfooms is jest fresh air, _fresh air_, 'sez he, emphysizin', 'athout no mixtur.

    The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell James Russell Lowell 1855

  • This was further proved by making the interval in air 0.8 of an inch whilst muriatic acid gas was in the vessel _a_; for on charging the small balls _s_ and S positively, _all_ the discharge took place through the _air_; but on charging them negatively, _all_ the discharge took place through the

    Experimental Researches in Electricity, Volume 1 Michael Faraday 1829

Comments

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  • this is the air I breath, this is the air I breath, Song By Michael W Smith

    October 25, 2007

  • Also: "a Elizabethan & Jacobean music : an accompanied song or melody in strophic form b : the chief voice part or melody in choral or other part music." --Merriam Webster Unabridged

    March 16, 2009

  • Means "water" in Indonesian.

    July 13, 2009

  • purpose, will, eternal element of man, epiphany, animal spirit

    ruah : or ruhoth, air, wind spirit

    July 22, 2009