Definition of "empennage" [empennage]

• The tail assembly of an aircraft, including the horizontal and vertical stabilizers, elevators, and rudder. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "As I neared the giant empennage, I glanced to my left at the last second."
• "Yet it is a sleek affair, with wings that are large relative to its fuselage and a tail section or empennage that sticks out behind in two sections, carrying stabilizers angled vertically in a V."
• "No marks of wing or empennage, or engine impact anywhere, not to mention a paucity of wreckage, bodies and etc."