Meaning & use
cabin pressure
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountabletechnical
The artificially maintained air pressure inside an aircraft or spacecraft, kept high enough for passengers to breathe and be comfortable at great height.
Grammar: Usually without an article: the system controls cabin pressure. Use the when it refers to a specific plane: the cabin pressure dropped.
Patterns
- lose cabin pressure
- maintain cabin pressure
The pilot reported a sudden drop in cabin pressure and descended at once.
Cabin pressure is kept at about the level you would feel on a mountain.
Your ears may pop as cabin pressure changes during landing.
Common combinations
- loss of cabin pressure
- Loss of cabin pressure triggers the oxygen masks.
- maintain cabin pressure
- Pumps maintain cabin pressure throughout the flight.
- drop in cabin pressure
- A drop in cabin pressure is what makes the masks fall.
- regulate cabin pressure
- Valves regulate cabin pressure automatically.
- cabin pressure system
- The mechanic inspected the cabin pressure system before takeoff.
Synonyms and how they differ
- pressurization
- Pressurization names the process or system, whereas cabin pressure names the resulting pressure inside the plane.
- air pressure
- Air pressure is the general term for the force of air anywhere, and is far wider than the in-aircraft sense.
Opposites
Word family
- pressurize verb
- to maintain raised air pressure in an enclosed space
- pressurized adjective
- kept at higher than outside pressure
- depressurize verb
- to lose or release that pressure
- cabin noun
- the passenger area of an aircraft
Commonly confused: cabin pressure or altitude?
cabin pressure vs altitude
Altitude is how high the aircraft flies, while cabin pressure is the air pressure inside it; the cabin can feel as if it is at a much lower altitude than the plane really is.
Practice
What does the system controlling cabin pressure do on a high-altitude flight?
Choose one answer.
Cabin pressure refers to the maintained air pressure inside the plane. It has nothing to do with engine cooling, airspeed or weather outside.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cabin pressure”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.