condensation trail
- noun
- /ˌkɒndənˈseɪʃən treɪl/
:
estela de condensación
- As the airplane gained altitude, it left behind long, white condensation trails against the blue sky.
Examples
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Missile or other condensation trails often catch people's attention.
Blog text (17) -
Contrails, short for condensation trails, are those wispy lines that airplanes leave behind.
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The sky was filled with condensation trails formed by the jets flying high above.
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You can often see condensation trails on a clear day as planes fly through the atmosphere.
Synonyms
8
7.3
A thin line of cloud that a plane makes when it flies high
1
9.6
A white line in the sky made of water vapor and ice from a plane
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and compositional: 'condensation' (vapour becoming liquid droplets) modifies 'trail' (a visible track), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it is a visible trail formed by condensation. This noun–noun composition is a common, cross-linguistically transparent pattern (often rendered by a similar compound or phrase in other languages), making the MWE immediately understandable from its parts.
Etymology
The noun condensation trail names the thin white line a jet leaves in the sky when hot, wet air from the engines cools and makes condensation, leaving a white trail behind the plane. The picture of a plane leaving this 'trail' is why the term means that cloud-like streak behind an aircraft.