freefall

/ˈfɹiːˌfɔːl/

freefall noun: a state of motion affected by no acceleration or force other than that of gravity.

Noun

freefall (countable and uncountable, plural freefalls)

A state of motion affected by no acceleration or force other than that of gravity.
- SAC has a bomber study currently in progress to see how many freefalls, how many SRAM, how many ALCM's they need to fill out the force.1977, United States, Congress, Senate, Committee on Armed Services, Fiscal Year 1978 Authorization for Military Procurement, Research, and Development, and Active Duty, Selected Reserve, and Civilian...
A state of motion but allowing for the presence of incidental air resistance not caused intentionally by devices such parachutes or wings.
- I only had four months left on the team and wanted to log as many freefalls as possible, and I was closing in on my 750th jump.2017, Randy Lippincott, Out of the Blue, My History of Freefall, Ethanol, and Skyfall
(broadly, figuratively) A rapid, uncontrolled decline or worsening.
- As civil war continues in Iraq, the U.S. president's approval ratings are in freefall.
- That "spiritual imagination" is manifest in the "Mass," which checks the freefalls into dread with praise for the mystery, flux and plenitude of creation.1989, Sagetrieb, volume 8, page 177

freefall (third-person singular simple present freefalls, present participle freefalling, simple past freefell, past participle freefallen)

(intransitive) To drop in a state of freefall.
- A base jumper attempts to freefall for as long as possible before triggering the parachute.
- Watching a mother raccoon urge her babies, one by one, to let go of their grip of the roof and free-fall into her outstretched arms, three feet below on the porch rail.1987 April 11, Pamela Wescott, “Judy Grahn: Pursuing the Work We Want”, in Gay Community News, page 8
(broadly, figuratively, intransitive) To decline or worsen rapidly and uncontrollably.

being affected only by gravity: मुक्त पतन mukt patan, मुक्त पात mukt pāt

compared with the freefalls that followed, one day after another through the next weeks, as brief respites gave way to new selling panics.1993, Eleanor Ray, Barbara Marinacci, Vineyards in the Sky, The Life of Legendary Vintner Martin Ray, page 149:
House prices were in freefall, if you owned one.2010, Mick Herron, Slow Horses, page 63:
Passenger numbers in freefall as UK battles COVID-192020 March 25, Rail, front cover:

Noun
plural	freefalls
alternative form	free fall
alternative form	free-fall
Verb
third-person singular present	freefalls
present participle	freefalling
past	freefell
past participle	freefallen

From free + fall.

What does freefall mean?: Freefall means a state of motion affected by no acceleration or force other than that of gravity.
What is freefall in Hindi?: Freefall in Hindi is मुक्त पतन (mukt patan), मुक्त पात (mukt pāt). See Freefall meaning in Hindi.
How do you use freefall in a sentence?: compared with the freefalls that followed, one day after another through the next weeks, as brief respites gave way to new selling panics.
What part of speech is freefall?: Freefall can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce freefall?: Freefall is pronounced /ˈfɹiːˌfɔːl/.
What is the plural of freefall?: The plural of freefall is freefalls.

Adapted from Wiktionary: freefall (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-freefall.wav.

Cite this entry: “freefall.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/freefall. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.