Meaning & use
skydiver
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
Someone who jumps out of an aircraft for sport and falls through the air for a while before opening a parachute.
Grammar: Countable: one skydiver, two skydivers.
Patterns
- a skydiver jumps from something
The skydiver waved to the crowd as she floated toward the field.
Every skydiver checks the parachute twice before boarding the plane.
A group of skydivers formed a circle in midair.
Word forms
| plural | skydivers |
|---|
Common combinations
- experienced skydiver
- An experienced skydiver packs his own parachute.
- tandem skydiver
- The tandem skydiver was strapped to an instructor for the first jump.
- professional skydiver
- A professional skydiver performed at the air show.
- skydiver lands
- The skydiver landed gently on the grass beside the hangar.
- become a skydiver
- He took lessons to become a skydiver after his fortieth birthday.
Synonyms and how they differ
- parachutist
- A parachutist is anyone who descends by parachute, including soldiers and emergency jumpers, while skydiver points to the sport and the free fall.
- jumper
- Jumper is a casual, shorter word that can also mean a BASE jumper or an athlete, so it is less specific than skydiver.
- free-faller
- Free-faller stresses the period before the parachute opens and is much less common.
Word family
- skydive verb
- to jump from a plane and fall before opening a parachute
- skydiving noun
- the sport of jumping from aircraft with a parachute
- sky noun
- the space above the earth
- diver noun
- a person who dives, in water or from a height
Commonly confused: skydiver or BASE jumper?
skydiver vs BASE jumper
A BASE jumper leaps from a fixed object such as a cliff or building, not from an aircraft, so the term is different from skydiver.
Practice
Which person is a skydiver?
Choose one answer.
A skydiver jumps from an aircraft and falls freely before opening a parachute. The swimmer, pilot and cable-car rider do not do this.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “skydiver”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.