aërial

Adjective

aerial (comparative more aerial, superlative most aerial)

1. Living or taking place in the air.
   • The seabirds put on an astonishing aerial display.
2. (archaic, literary) Made up of air or gas; gaseous.
   • A soul [...] was first conceived to be an aerial, or an igneous substance, which animates the body during life, and makes its escape at death [...].1782, Joseph Priestley, Disquisitions relating to matter and spirit, section I
3. Positioned high up; elevated.
   • The aerial photographs clearly showed the damage caused by the storm.
4. Ethereal, insubstantial; imaginary.
   • the great Recompence in view, for which the most exalted Minds have with so much Alacrity, sacrifis'd their Quiet, Health, sensual Pleasures, and every inch of themselves, has never been any thing else but the Breath of Man, the Aerial Coyn of Praise.1714, Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees
5. Pertaining to the air or atmosphere; atmospheric.
6. Pertaining to a vehicle which travels through the air; airborne; relating to or conducted by means of aircraft.
   • aerial photography

See all 12 meanings of aerial