Word.ws English Dictionary

tarmac

/ˈtɑː(ɹ)mæk/

tarmac noun: tarmacadam.

tarmac: tarmacadam
Image: Jakemonte80, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

tarmac (countable and uncountable, plural tarmacs)

  1. Tarmacadam.
  2. (Canada, Ireland, UK, broadly) Any bituminous road surfacing material.
    • How meek and shrunken did that haughty Tarmac become as it slunk by the wide circle of asphalt of the yellow sort, that was loosely strewn before the great iron gates of Lady Hall as a forerunner of the consideration that awaited the guests of Rupert, Earl of Kare, […].1922, Michael Arlen, “3/1/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days
    Synonyms:
    asphalt
  3. (Canada, Ireland, UK) The driveable surface of a road.
  4. (informal) The area of an airport, other than the runway, where planes park or maneuver.
    • As he walked across the tarmac in the bitter January wind he saw his own name going over the network: BOND, JAMES. BRITISH DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT 0094567, the short wait and the replies coming back on the different machines: NEGATIVE, NEGATIVE, NEGATIVE. And then, from the FBI: POSITIVE AWAIT CHECK.1954, Ian Fleming, “The Red Carpet”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 1

Verb

tarmac (third-person singular simple present tarmacs, present participle tarmacking or tarmacing or tarmaccing, simple past and past participle tarmacked or tarmaced or tarmacced)

  1. (Canada, UK) To pave with tarmacadam or a similar material.
    • To your left is a green lane, partly tarmacked with chippings, which leads up to a little car-parking area.2008, Valerie Belsey, Exploring Green Lanes in North and North-West Devon, →ISBN, page 108
    • Residents in Bolton are angry after workmen tarmaced only one half of their road leaving the other half strewn with potholes.2014, Taking the rough with the smooth: Bolton residents anger over half-tarmaced road, ITV Granada
  2. To spend time idling on a runway, usually waiting for takeoff clearance.
    • "It is not unusual these days for the time spent tarmacking to exceed the time spent in the air, " said Senator John Danforth, R-Mo.1989, Donald F. Wood, James C. Johnson, Contemporary Transportation, →ISBN, page 213

tarmac meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali

tarmac in Hindi

टरमैक, टारमैक

tarmac in Tamil

விமான ஓடுதளம், நிறுத்தம் முதலியன, கீல் கல்வீதிப்பாவு

tarmac in Marathi

टरमॅक, टारमॅक

tarmac in Bengali

টারম্যাক
More languagesFewer languages
tarmac in Telugu
టార్మాక్
tarmac in Malayalam
ടാർമാക്, ടർമാക്, ടാർമാക്ക്
tarmac in Kannada
ಟಾರ್ಮ್ಯಾಕ್, ಟಾರ್ಮಾಕ್
tarmac in Punjabi
ਟਾਰਮੈਕ
tarmac in Gujarati
ટરમૅક, ટારમૅક
tarmac in Odia
ଟାର୍ମାକ୍, ଟାର୍ମ୍ଯ଼ାକ୍
tarmac in Nepali
टरम्याक, टारम्याक, टार्मेक

Examples of tarmac in a sentence

  • The workers were shovelling gravel and tarmac into the pothole in the road.
  • The workers were shooling gravel and tarmac into the pothole in the road.
  • Pale tourists, tired but excited, emerge like apparitions from the heat haze that shimmers over the tarmac.

All 22 example sentences with tarmac

Synonyms of tarmac

Forms of tarmac

Noun
pluraltarmacs
Verb
third-person singular presenttarmacs
present participletarmacking
present participletarmacing
present participletarmaccing
past participletarmacked
pasttarmacked
past participletarmaced
pasttarmaced
past participletarmacced
pasttarmacced

Plural of tarmac: tarmacs

Origin of tarmac

Clipping of tarmacadam, which is from tar + macadam (“crushed stones”). Originally a trademark owned by its inventor, Edgar Hooley.

Words formed from tarmac

Questions about tarmac

What does tarmac mean?
Tarmac means tarmacadam.
What is tarmac in Hindi?
Tarmac in Hindi is टरमैक, टारमैक. See Tarmac meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is tarmac?
Tarmac can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce tarmac?
Tarmac is pronounced /ˈtɑː(ɹ)mæk/.
What is the plural of tarmac?
The plural of tarmac is tarmacs.

Words near tarmac in the dictionary

  1. Tarlo
  2. Tarlton
  3. Tarltonian
  4. Tarltons
  5. tarm
  6. tarmac
  7. tarmacadam
  8. tarmacadamed
  9. tarmacadaming
  10. tarmacadams
  11. tarmacced

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tarmac (page history and authors); tarmac (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tarmac (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tarmac (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tarmac (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tarmac (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tarmac (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tarmac (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tarmac (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tarmac (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tarmac (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tarmac (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

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

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