Meaning & use
landing strip
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A long, narrow piece of flat ground, paved or cleared, where small aircraft can take off and land.
Grammar: Can be counted: a landing strip, three landing strips.
Patterns
- a landing strip in somewhere
- land on a landing strip
The pilot guided the small plane down onto a dirt landing strip beside the lake.
Villagers cleared a landing strip so supplies could be flown in.
The ranch has its own landing strip for private planes.
nouncountableinformalhumorous
A narrow stripe of hair left on the body after the rest has been shaved or trimmed.
Grammar: Informal, humorous use; usually countable.
The magazine joked about the landing strip trend in grooming.
The comedian made a quick joke about a landing strip and moved on.
Beauty articles sometimes mention the landing strip as a styling choice.
Word forms
| plural | landing strips |
|---|
Common combinations
- dirt landing strip
- A dirt landing strip ran along the edge of the farm.
- short landing strip
- The pilot needed skill to use such a short landing strip.
- remote landing strip
- A remote landing strip serves the research camp.
- build a landing strip
- The company built a landing strip beside the mine.
- grass landing strip
- They touched down on a grass landing strip.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
Commonly confused: landing strip or landing strip vs. airport?
landing strip vs landing strip vs. airport
An airport has terminals, services and many flights, while a landing strip is only a surface for planes to land.
Practice
The bush plane touched down on a short dirt ___ near the research camp.
Choose one answer.
A landing strip is a simple runway for small aircraft. A parking lot or bus station is not designed for landing planes, and a harbor is for boats.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “landing strip”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.