Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An airplane with only one pair of wings.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A flying-machine or a gliding-machine which depends for sustention upon a single aeroplane (surface) or upon a single pair of aeroplanes laterally disposed. In a flying-machine of this type, M. Louis Bleriot crossed the English Channel, July 25, 1909. See aëroplane, n., 2.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun aviation An airplane that has a single pair of wings

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an airplane with a single wing

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Formed as mono- +‎ plane, by analogy with biplane; compare the French monoplan, as well as the earlier English aeroplane, multiplane, and triplane.

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Examples

  • Perhaps I should if I were using the biplane, but a monoplane is a one-man show -- if you want to get the last foot of lift out of it.

    The Horror of the Heights Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir, 1859-1930 1992

  • His monoplane was a fast machine, and the flight across Channel would have taken him less than half an hour.

    Learning to Fly A Practical Manual for Beginners Claude Grahame-White 1919

  • The monoplane, which is much nearer the bird type, has also sounded wing ends, made not so much for the purpose of imitating the wing of the bird, as for structural reasons.

    Aeroplanes 1915

  • -- From a spectacular standpoint a monoplane is the ideal flying machine.

    Aeroplanes 1915

  • -- The only form which has met with any success is the aeroplane, which, in practice, is made in two distinct forms, one with a single set of supporting planes, in imitation of birds, and called a monoplane; and the other having two wings, one above the other, and called the bi-plane, or two-planes.

    Aeroplanes 1915

  • Originally the monoplane was the type generally employed by experimenters, such as Lilienthal, and others.

    Aeroplanes 1915

  • Now, modern warfare has taught us that the most effective assailant of the monoplane is a biplane.

    The Unspeakable Perk Samuel Hopkins Adams 1914

  • When a man like Curtiss, who has attained great success with biplanes, gives serious attention to the monoplane form of construction and goes so far as to build and successfully operate a single surface machine, it may be taken for granted that the monoplane is a fixture in this country.

    Flying Machines: Construction and Operation 1912

  • This results in the biplane being more compact and therefore more readily manipulated than the monoplane, which is an important item for a novice.

    Flying Machines: Construction and Operation 1912

  • The monoplane is the more simple in construction and, where weight-sustaining capacity is not a prime requisite, may probably be found the most convenient.

    Flying Machines: Construction and Operation 1912

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