Aerial means relating to the air or happening in the sky. When a gymnast performs an aerial cartwheel, she flips through the air without her hands touching the ground. When you see aerial photographs of your town, you're looking at pictures taken from an airplane or drone flying high above.

It describes anything that exists in, moves through, or relates to the space above the ground. Birds are aerial creatures because they spend so much time flying. Soccer players practice aerial skills when they learn to head the ball in midair. During World War II, countries fought aerial battles with fighter planes engaging each other thousands of feet above the ground.

An aerial is also a metal device (often called an antenna in America) that receives or transmits radio and television signals through the air. Many older cars had long aerials sticking up from their hoods or roofs to catch radio signals. Today, most vehicles use shorter antennas or ones built into the windshield, but the word aerial reminds us that radio and television signals travel invisibly through the air all around us.