tarmac

1 of 2

noun

tar·​mac ˈtär-ˌmak How to pronounce tarmac (audio)
: a tarmacadam road, apron, or runway

Tarmac

2 of 2

trademark

used for a bituminous binder for roads

Examples of tarmac in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Noun
Airlines experienced 437 tarmac delays of three hours or more on domestic flights. Lauren Penington, Denver Post, 22 May 2025 The road south from Khartoum was a black tarmac strip through flat scrubland. Nicolas Niarchos, New Yorker, 19 May 2025 This marks a rise from 289 tarmac delays on domestic flights and 35 tarmac delays on international flights in 2023. Soo Kim, MSNBC Newsweek, 15 May 2025 The promise of copious amounts of profitable new airlines, meanwhile, evaporated like jet fuel on a hot tarmac. Mack Degeurin, Popular Science, 1 May 2025 See All Example Sentences for tarmac

Word History

Etymology

Noun

from Tarmac, a trademark

First Known Use

Noun

1919, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of tarmac was in 1919

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Tarmac.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tarmac. Accessed 27 May. 2025.

Kids Definition

tarmac

noun
tar·​mac ˈtär-ˌmak How to pronounce tarmac (audio)
: a road, apron, or runway paved with layers of crushed stone covered with tar

More from Merriam-Webster on tarmac

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