Airborne means carried through the air or flying. When a basketball player leaps up for a dunk and hangs in the air for that brief moment, they're airborne. When you jump off a diving board, you become airborne until you hit the water.

The word describes anything traveling through the air rather than touching the ground. Seeds become airborne when the wind carries them to new places where they might grow. Dust becomes airborne when you shake out a dusty rug. Diseases can be airborne when tiny droplets carrying germs float through the air. That's why covering your cough matters.

Whether it's a frisbee sailing across a park, pollen drifting on a spring breeze, or paratroopers descending from transport planes, airborne describes that state of being suspended in and moved by the air around us.