Touchdown

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /ˈtʌt͡ʃ.daʊn/

Definitions

1. The moment when an aircraft's wheels make contact with the runway during landing, or when a football player grounds the ball in the opposing team's end zone to score six points
2. A landing event occurs when an aircraft touches down on a surface, or a scoring achievement in football when a player legally brings the ball into the opponent's end zone for maximum points
3. This term refers to the phase of landing for an aircraft upon reaching the ground, as well as the successful play in football where a player gets the ball into the rival's end zone for a score

Etymology: Football fans may assume "touchdown" comes from the field, but the word is older than the gridiron game it now names. Its first element is "touch", which comes from Old English and is part of a compound with "down", a word that can be traced back through Old English "dūne" (a hill) to ancient Germanic roots. Put together, the two words describe a movement toward the ground that ends in contact with it. That literal sense of arriving at the ground is what the modern meaning draws on. The same idea gives "touchdown" its use for an aircraft's wheels meeting the runway, which is the sense this entry records. In both cases the word marks the moment a moving object makes contact with the surface beneath it.

Synonyms: landing, descent, arrival, touching down, settling

Antonyms: takeoff, ascent, departure, lift-off, climb