aerie

noun

ae·​rie ˈer-ē  ˈir-ē  ˈā-(ə-)rē 

variants or less commonly aery

1

: the nest of a bird on a cliff or a mountaintop

2

obsolete : a brood of birds of prey

3

: an elevated often secluded dwelling, structure, or position

Did you know?

English poet John Milton put a variant of aerie to good use in Paradise Lost (1667), writing, "… there the eagle and the stork / On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build." But Milton wasn't the first to use the term, which comes to us via Medieval Latin and Old French and probably traces to an earlier Latin word, ager, meaning "field." English speakers had been employing aerie as a word for a bird's nest for more than a century when he penned those words. Eventually, aerie was applied to human dwellings as well as birds' nests. At first, this sense referred to dwellings nestled high up in mountains or hills. These days, you're also likely to hear high-rise city apartments or offices referred to as "aeries."

Examples of aerie in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Big Apple aerie features five bedrooms and five bathrooms across its 4,568 square feet. —Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 2 Apr. 2024

As a bonus, the aeries will also come with expansive outdoor terraces that offer sweeping views of the water. —Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 20 Mar. 2024

Tan’s gorgeous aerie above San Francisco Bay, with its canopy of four Pacific live oaks, is a paradise for birds, hosting 63 species and counting. —Heller McAlpin, Los Angeles Times, 6 Mar. 2024

The Hollywood star, whose proverbial big break was the 1994 horror film Interview with the Vampire, splashed out a cool $3 million for the eighth-floor aerie back in 2007, The New York Post first reported. —Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 6 Mar. 2024

The groups are known as a convocation, an aerie, even a congress. —Journal Sentinel, 28 Feb. 2024

The spacious aerie has been on and off the market for several years; despite its significant time spent on the market, the $35 million price tag remains the same. —Emma Reynolds, Robb Report, 30 Jan. 2024

This was a roofed aerie atop the second deck that curled around the corner of the stadium where home plate stood in the summertime, a reminder that Briggs Stadium was built for baseball, not football — for Tigers, not Lions. —Bill Morris, Detroit Free Press, 28 Jan. 2024

Bullard’s third book is a whirlwind tour through their glamorous abodes as well as his own dazzling retreats — a sprawling Hollywood Hills home that once belonged to Dennis Hopper, a mid–century masterpiece in Palm Springs and a modernist aerie on the Baja peninsula overlooking the Sea of Cortez. —Abigail Stone, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Nov. 2023

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Medieval Latin airea, aira, eria, Latinization of Old French aire, ere "bird's nest on a rock, family, stock, sort, kind," probably going back to Vulgar Latin *agrum, re-formation of Latin ager "field" — more at acre

First Known Use

circa 1520, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

aerie

noun

aer·​ie

ˈa(ə)r-ē,

ˈe(ə)r-,

ˈi(ə)r-

1

: the nest of a bird on a cliff or a mountaintop

2

: a dwelling placed high up