Area 51

[ air-ee-uh fif-tee-wuhn ]

noun

, Informal.

1. a highly classified U.S. Air Force facility in southern Nevada. Area 51 has been the subject of speculation that the site is used to study and conceal evidence of UFO activity as well as visitations by extraterrestrials:

   Just when I’m sure that all this UFO talk about Area 51 is plain nonsense, someone comes out with a new book or documentary to make me start wondering again.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Area 51¹

First recorded in 1955–60; from its CIA map designation. Area 51 was also previously referred to as “Paradise Ranch,” later shortened to “the Ranch” in order to make the facility sound more attractive to potential workers

Example Sentences

That remains the focus of “The Last Dance,” in which Eddie and Venom try to make it from Mexico to New York City and end up stranded in Area 51, as aliens are wont to do.

From Los Angeles Times

Stafford was in charge of the famous “Area 51” desert base that was the site of many UFO theories, but the home of testing of Air Force stealth technologies.

From Seattle Times

Stafford’s Air Force duties not only had him run the military’s top flight school and experimental plane testing base, but he was commanding general of Area 51.

From Seattle Times

A biography from his museum said, that while Stafford was in charge of Area 51 and later as the development and acquisition chief at the Pentagon he “wrote the specs and established the program that led to the development of the F-117 Stealth Fighter, and later, the B-2 Stealth Bomber.”

From Seattle Times

"The West has a historical relationship to UAP -- Area 51 in Nevada, Roswell in New Mexico and here in Utah we have Skinwalker Ranch in the Uinta Basin and military activity in the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground," said Medina.

From Science Daily