Airfoil

Definition: Airfoil

Airfoil

Noun

1. A device that provides reactive force when in motion relative to the surrounding air; can lift or control a plane in flight.

Specialty Definitions: Airfoil

Domain	Definitions
Aerospace	A structure, piece, or body, originally likened to a foil or leaf in being wide and thin, designed to obtain a useful reaction on itself in its motion through the air. (references)
Mechanical Engineering	Outline of the surface which is created when an airfoil wing is sectioned by a plane normal to the plane of the airfoil wing and parallel to the direction of the relative velocity. Source: European Union. (references)
Physics	A body so shaped as to produce an aerodynamic reaction normal to the direction of its motion through a fluid with minimum drag. Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Airfoil

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

An airfoil (or aerofoil in British English) is a specially shaped cross-section of a wing or blade, used to provide lift or downforce, depending on its application. Airfoils have a characteristic shape which is that of a curved streamline, with a rounded leading edge and a sharp trailing edge.

For an understanding of the various ways of explaining lift, see lift. This force can be harnessed to lift an aircraft, or, in an inverted position, to hold a car or other vehicle to the ground. Airfoils are also found in propellors, fanss, and turbines.

It is important to note that any thin object at an angle of attack with respect to the airflow, such as a flat plate or a bridge, will generate lift, there is nothing "magic" about the shape of an airfoil. However, the airfoil shape ensures that lift is generated with the minimum of drag, so it is important for efficiency.

The optimal design of airfoils has been much-studied, and is a key element in aerodynamics. Different applications will call for a different airfoil - there is no one "true" airfoil design. Various systems have been devised to describe and characterise airfoils - the most common and prevalent is the NACA system. Before this, various ad-hoc systems were used. An example of a general purpose airfoil that finds wide application, and predates the NACA system is the Clark-Y.

Synonyms: Airfoil

Synonyms: aerofoil (n), control surface (n), surface (n). (additional references)

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Crosswords: Airfoil

English words defined with "airfoil": aerodynamic lift, aileron, angle of attack, anti-torque rotor ♦ elevator ♦ flap, flaps ♦ horizontal stabilizer ♦ leading edge, lift ♦ rotary wing, rotor blade, rudder ♦ spoiler, stabilizer ♦ tail rotor, tailplane, trailing edge ♦ vertical tail ♦ wingspan, wingspread. (references)

Specialty definitions using "airfoil": airfoil fan, airfoil profile, attached shock wave ♦ balancing flap, bow wave ♦ drag factor ♦ lift coefficient ♦ pitching moment, planform ♦ slotted airfoil, subsonic flow ♦ tube-axial fan ♦ wind turbine with flapped ring wing diffuser ♦ yawing moment ♦ zero-lift chord. (references)

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Commercial Usage: Airfoil

Domain	Title
Books	Aerodynamics: Fundamentals of Theory, Aerodynamics of an Airfoil and Wing; Methods of Aerodynamic Calculation (reference) Airfoil Design and Data (reference) Airfoil Selection (reference) Applied Airfoil Theory, Airplane Body Drag and Influence (reference) Comprehensive Reference Guide to Airfoil Sections for Light Aircraft (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Photo Album: Airfoil

Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Evolution of the Airfoil.Credit: NASA.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Airfoil

"Airfoil" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 83.33% of the time. "Airfoil" is used about 6 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	83.33%	5	157,705
Noun (proper)	16.67%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	6	N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expressions: Airfoil

Expressions using "airfoil": airfoil profile ♦ slotted airfoil. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Airfoil

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
airfoil	88	airfoil technology	3
naca airfoil	17	airfoil software	3
airfoil design	13	airfoil glider	2
pcc airfoil	11	airfoil program	2
leading edge airfoil	10	airfoil naca software	2
airfoil goggles	7	airfoil selig	2
clark y airfoil	6	airfoil calculator	2
airfoil kestrel km40	6	airfoil coordinate	2
airfoil database	5	airfoil data naca	2
airfoil data	5	airfoil rc	2
airfoil low speed	4	airfoil template	2
airfoil supercritical	4	airfoil airplane model	2
		airfoil aviation	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Airfoil

Language		Translations for "airfoil"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Chinese		副翼. (various references)

Danish		bæreplansprofil (airfoil profile), bæreplan (aerofoil). (various references)

Dutch		aërodynamisch profiel (aerofoil), profiel (aerofoil, edge-jointed layer, fillet, functional profile, functional standard, molding, moulding, pattern, profile, section, security profile, shape), draagvleugelprofiel (airfoil profile), draagvlak (aerofoil, carriage, tumbler cant, wing). (various references)

Finnish		kantotaso (aerofoil), kantopinta (aerofoil, supporting surfaces). (various references)

French		tapis roulant, surface portante, profil de voilure, profil d'aile portante (airfoil profile), profil aérodynamique, machine � translation dite tapis roulant, barrage éolien. (various references)

German		aerodynamische Fläche (aerofoil), Tragfluegelprofil (airfoil profile), Segelwagen (sand yacht). (various references)

Greek		αιολική μηχανή τύπου κυλιόμενου τάπητα, αεροτομή,κατατομή αεροτομής (airfoil profile), αεροτομή (aerofoil), αεροδυναμικό σώμα (aerofoil). (various references)

Italian		piano a profilo aerodinamico (aerofoil). (various references)

Korean		항공� 개. (various references)

Pig Latin		airfoilay

Portuguese		perfil de asa (airfoil profile), perfil aerodinâmico (aerofoil), máquina tipo aerofólio. (various references)

Russian		аэродинамический профиль. (various references)

Spanish		superficie sustentadora (aerofoil). (various references)

Swedish		aerofoil,. (various references)

Turkish		uçak kanadı, kanat ucu (pinion). (various references)

Ukranian		крило (aerofoil, dashboard, mudguard, pinion, vane, wing), несуча поверхня, профіль крила (aerofoil). (various references)

Vietnamese		cánh máy bay (aerofoil). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Airfoil

Derivations
	Words beginning with "airfoil": airfoils. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Airfoil" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: airfood, Akinfii, arioli, garefowl, sainfoin. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Airfoil"

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "airfoil" (pronounced e"rfoy'l)
3	-f oy' l	hydrofoil.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Airfoil

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-f-i-i-l-o-r"
	-1 letter: foliar.
	-2 letters: aioli, filar, flair, flora, folia, frail.
	-3 letters: alif, aril, fail, fair, farl, faro, fiar, fila, filo, foal, foil, fora, ilia, lair, lari, liar, lira, liri, loaf, oral, rail, rial, roil, rolf.
	-4 letters: ail, air, arf, far, fil, fir, for, fro, lar, oaf, oar, oil, ora, ria, rif.
	-5 letters: ai, al, ar, fa, if.
	Words containing the letters "a-f-i-i-l-o-r"
	+1 letter: airfoils.
	+2 letters: calorific, orificial.
	+3 letters: filtration, flirtation, floriation, florilegia, frictional, riboflavin, trifoliate.
	+4 letters: californium, facilitator, felicitator, filtrations, flirtations, flirtatious, floriations, formability, formalising, formalistic, formalities, formalizing, infiltrator, infomercial, informality, prolificacy, reinflation, riboflavins.
	+5 letters: californiums, craniofacial, facilitators, facilitatory, felicitators, fibrillation, fibroblastic, fluoridating, fluoridation, fluorinating, fluorination, forgeability, frictionally, frontalities, horrifically, infiltration, infiltrators, inflationary, infomercials, microfilaria, multifarious, myofibrillar, overfamiliar, profligacies, prolifically, reinflations, trifoliolate.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.