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Glite Dictionary
🪂 A flying craft 🧑‍✈️ A person flying
paraglider

paraglider

1 4.9
A light fabric wing that carries a person through the air
  • noun
  • /ˈpærəˌɡlaɪdər/
translation icon : parapente
  • "As he watched her turn and walk away toward the bedroom, her scent clinging to him like a shroud, he suddenly found himself thinking of that brightly colored paraglider he'd seen wheeling like a hawk through the Central Park Biodome."
  • paraglider wing

Examples

  • A splash of color came into view as a delta-winged paraglider worked the roiling thermals rising up along the dome's curved inner surface.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Wahtsoph-ki positioned his paraglider behind the Packet.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Paraglider.

    Inspector Gadget (1999)

  • Successive generations of paragliders, with winglike membranes that allow fliers to surf the winds, have long since rendered the older chutes obsolete.

    Academic text (2011)

  • The experienced pilot launched the paraglider from the cliff and glided smoothly through the air.

  • As the sun began to set, several paragliders took off from the hillside, their bright colors contrasting against the sky.

  • During the festival, participants showcased their skills by flying their paragliders over the stunning landscape.

Synonyms

glider
vsparaglider
  • Specialized
37 4.6

A light plane with no engine that flies using rising air

uses a flexible nonrigid canopy and free flies for recreational gliding

How Big

sailplane
  • Specialized
1 8.1
hang glider
2 4.2
paraglider
1 4.9

Surface Forms

paraglider singular
paragliders plural

Morphology

paraglider = glider (semi-transparent) = para + glide + er

The relation to 'glider' is clear, but the prefix 'para-' is specialized and the aircraft sense is not fully predictable from the parts alone.

Etymology

Paraglider comes from para- and glider; para- you can remember from parachute ('to protect') and glide means 'to move smoothly through the air'. So a paraglider is a light wing with no hard frame that lets you glide through the sky.