quadcopter

[ kwod-kop-ter ]

noun

1. a rotorcraft with four arms, each with a propeller, one pair of which spins clockwise while the other spins counterclockwise, enabling the craft to hover and maintain stability:

   For aerial photography in mountainous regions, our drones of choice are small battery-powered quadcopters.

Word History and Origins

Origin of quadcopter¹

First recorded in 1920–25 (in the sense “manned rotocraft”); quad(ri-) ( def ) + copter ( def )

Example Sentences

On Monday, a boy from Beit Lahia told BBC Arabic’s Gaza Today programme that he and his family had fled to Gaza City after the Israeli military dropped leaflets from a quadcopter, ordering their immediate evacuation.

From BBC

The WHO did not say who was behind the strike, but local medical staff blamed an Israeli quadcopter.

From BBC

“We were living in so much fear. When the school was hit, we had people killed and injured. There was nothing there to eat or drink. The water tanker that was usually sent to us was bombed by the Israelis. It was like that for days. Three days ago, a quadcopter descended on the school at nine in the morning, giving us an ultimatum to get out by 10. The quadcopter loudspeaker said we had to evacuate the school because we were in a dangerous fighting zone.”

From BBC

It's NASA's newly approved mission to Saturn's moon, Titan, where the agency will deploy the robotic quadcopter called Dragonfly — successor to the legendary Ingenuity of Mars-mission fame.

From Salon

Quadcopter drones, so named because they have four rotors, have a short flight range and can explode on impact.

From New York Times