How to Use contrail in a Sentence

contrail

noun
Definition of contrailnext
  • There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, not even a cirrus wisp or fading contrail.
    — Ross Andersen, The Atlantic, 11 July 2024
  • Private jets, already heavily scrutinized for high carbon emissions, represent a big part of the contrail problem.
    — Mary Cunningham, CBS News, 7 Aug. 2024
  • The white streak in the sky shown in the video is an airplane contrail.
    — Eleanor McCrary, USA TODAY, 14 Apr. 2023
  • It’s inspired by the contrails that planes leave in the sky.
    — Steve Harrison, charlotteobserver, 26 Sep. 2017
  • The sky is clogged with contrails, the straight lines of the bombers, the circles and spirals of the fighters looping around them.
    — Andrew Liptak, The Verge, 31 Mar. 2018
  • Airplane traffic, of course, plays a key role in the impact of contrails.
    — NBC News, 28 July 2019
  • Colorado pitchers have a 6.57 ERA there, and home runs are leaving contrails in the mile-high sky.
    — Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post, 20 July 2019
  • Instead of the rainbow contrail design, the triple stripe is made up of TIE fighters, a fun touch.
    — Anthony Karcz, Forbes, 4 May 2023
  • The snow hissed violently off the bottoms of my skis to form blue contrails.
    — Tim Neville, New York Times, 24 Feb. 2016
  • The rocket is barely a speck in the sky now, with an arcing contrail and still-bright engine exhaust.
    — Popular Mechanics, 19 Apr. 2018
  • When that puff of blue smoke eventually becomes a steady stream — like a contrail from an F16 —that’ll be your cue that the end is nigh for the Ion, Jesse.
    — courant.com, 1 Sep. 2019
  • When that puff of blue smoke eventually becomes a steady stream — like a contrail from an F16 — that’ll be your cue that the end is nigh for the Ion, Jesse.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Oct. 2019
  • If the weather is favorable, viewers in the mid-Atlantic may be able to see the rocket and its contrail, or the tail from the rocket launch.
    — Nick Siano, USA TODAY, 15 June 2021
  • The test flights did burn through 2 percent more fuel by avoiding contrails.
    — Justine Calma, The Verge, 9 Aug. 2023
  • The contrail will be brief but brilliant, featuring colors ranging from bright white to aqua to a bit of pink.
    — Gary Robbins, sandiegouniontribune.com, 4 May 2018
  • Better yet, anyone with binoculars may be able to see a small, v-shaped contrail from the rocket.
    — Cailey Rizzo, Travel + Leisure, 2 Oct. 2020
  • One issue is that just 10 percent of flights create contrails.
    — NBC News, 28 July 2019
  • The launch was visible to reporters on the ground, with the rocket streaking across the almost cloudless Texas sky with a blooming contrail.
    — Jackie Wattles, CNN, 20 July 2021
  • How does a plane generate a contrail that in turn becomes a climate trigger?
    — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 20 Feb. 2020
  • The story also found that flights that avoided contrails burned 2% more jet fuel on their journey.
    — Emily Price, PCMAG, 10 Aug. 2023
  • Another SpaceX launch a couple of weeks earlier had caused a stir with its eye-catching streak of light and contrail.
    — Terry Castleman, Los Angeles Times, 2 Apr. 2024
  • All were during the day and roughly half used the contrail avoiding software to adjust altitude, while half did not.
    — Kyle Arnold, Anchorage Daily News, 14 Aug. 2023
  • After the show, reader J emailed me a picture, taken last month, of a jet contrail that could’ve been mistaken for a missile, too.
    — Noah Shachtman, WIRED, 10 Nov. 2010
  • Tear-gas cannisters soared above us, the contrails spidering toward the earth.
    — Anand Gopal, The New Yorker, 10 Dec. 2023
  • Meyers’s lines grew icy and severe, distant and distinct, a contrail mingling with the cirrus clouds.
    — Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 11 Nov. 2022
  • These voters want safe jobs, protection from imports and the restoration of a Britain that vanished in the contrails of the global economy.
    — Mark Landler, New York Times, 13 Dec. 2019
  • These voters want safe jobs, protection from imports, and the restoration of a Britain that vanished in the contrails of the global economy.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 14 Dec. 2019
  • Each new settlement drags a contrail of roads and water lines and restrictions across routes that used to be open to Palestinians.
    — Washington Post, 22 Nov. 2021
  • If there are no contrails or clouds surrounding it, the plane is moving against a completely uniform blue sky.
    — Sara Nelson, Discover Magazine, 29 Sep. 2023
  • The company says the rocket will leave the pad a few seconds before 7:13 a.m. People in San Diego County should look to the west-northwest for the contrail, which could shine in the morning sunlight.
    — Gary Robbins, sandiegouniontribune.com, 29 Mar. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'contrail.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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