UFO

See also: Ufo, ufo, ÛFO, ufó, and úfó

English

Etymology

Abbreviations.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌjuːɛfˈəʊ/, /ˈjuːfəʊ̯/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌjuˌɛfˈoʊ/, /ˈjufoʊ̯/, /ˈʌfoʊ̯/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊ, -uːfəʊ

Noun

UFO (plural UFOs)

1. Initialism of unidentified flying object; (loosely) an alien spacecraft. [from 20th c.]
   • 1967, Brad Steiger, Joan Whritenour, “Someone Up There May Not Like Us”, in Flying Saucers Are Hostile‎^[1], Tandem Publishing, published 1975, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 13:

     After the case had been reported in the newspapers, Mrs. Gracindo de Souza, wife of a member of the local stock exchange, told police that she and her daughter had been driving down Alameda Sao Boaventura when they had seen an^[sic] UFO hovering over the clearing where the bodies were later discovered.

   • 2004, George Carlin, “THEY CAME FROM OUT OF THE SKY”, in When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?‎^[2], New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 12:

     To my way of thinking, there is every bit as much evidence for the existence of UFOs as there is for the existence of God. Probably far more. At least in the case of UFOs there have been countless taped and filmed—and, by the way, unexplained—sightings from all over the world, along with documented radar evidence seen by experienced military and civilian radar operators.

2. (colloquial) An "unfinished object" in knitting or other kinds of craft. [from 20th c.]
   • 2007, Kerry Wills, The Close-knit Circle: American Knitters Today, page 107:

     UFOs differ from WIPs in that a WIP is a project one is actively pursuing, while a UFO runs the risk of never getting finished.

3. (astronomy) Initialism of ultrared flattened object. [2022]

Synonyms

unidentified flying object

• UAP

Derived terms

unidentified flying object

• UFOer
• ufologist
• ufology
• UFO nest
• UFO peach
• UFO religion

Related terms

unidentified flying object

• USO

Descendants

• → Czech: UFO
• → Dutch: ufo
• → Estonian: UFO
• → Finnish: UFO, ufo
• → German: UFO, Ufo
• → Greek: ούφο (oúfo)
• → Italian: UFO, ufo
• → Japanese: UFO (yūfō)
• → Norwegian: ufo
• → Portuguese: UFO, ufo
• → Swedish: ufo, UFO

Translations

an unidentified flying object

• Albanian: UFO, OFP
• Arabic: يُو أَف أَو (yū ʔaf ʔaw), الطَّبَق الطَّائِر (aṭ-ṭabaq aṭ-ṭāʔir)
• Armenian: ՉԹՕ (ČʻTʻŌ)
• Azerbaijani: NUO, UFO, UNO
• Basque: OHE
• Belarusian: НЛА m (NLA)
• Bulgarian: НЛО n (NLO)
• Catalan: ovni m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: UFO (ju¹ e¹ fu⁴ ou¹, ju¹ e¹ fou¹), 飛碟 / 飞碟 (fei¹ dip^6-2)

  Mandarin: 不明飛行物 / 不明飞行物 (zh) (bùmíng fēixíngwù), 飛碟 / 飞碟 (zh) (fēidié), 幽浮 (zh) (yōufú)

• Czech: UFO (cs) n
• Danish: ufo (da) c
• Dutch: ufo (nl) m
• Esperanto: NIFO, nifo (eo)
• Estonian: ufo
• Finnish: UFO (fi), ufo (fi)
• French: OVNI (fr) m
• Galician: ovni (gl) m
• Georgian: ამო (amo)
• German: UFO (de) n
• Greek: ΑΤΙΑ (el) (ATIA)
• Hebrew: עב"ם m ('abám)
• Hindi: उड़न तश्तरी (uṛan taśtarī), उड़न खटोला (uṛan khaṭolā)
• Hungarian: ufó (hu)
• Icelandic: FFH
• Irish: úfó
• Italian: UFO (it) m, ufo (it) m or OVNI (it)
• Japanese: ＵＦＯ (ja) (yūfō), 未確認飛行物体 (ja) (みかくにんひこうぶったい, mikakunin hikō buttai)
• Kashubian: maniewid m
• Kazakh: БҰН (BŪN)
• Khmer: វត្ថុហោះហើរមិនស្គាល់អត្តសញ្ញាណ (vɔɔtthohɑhhaəmɨnskŏəlʼɑɑttɑɑhññiən)
• Korean: 유에프오 (yuepeuo), 미확인비행물체 (ko) (mihwaginbihaengmulche)
• Latvian: NLO
• Lithuanian: NSO
• Macedonian: НЛО (mk) (NLO)
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ufo m

  Nynorsk: ufo m

• Persian: یوفو (yufo)
• Polish: NOL (pl) m, UFO (pl) n
• Portuguese: óvni m, ovni m, ufo (pt) m
• Romanian: OZN (ro)
• Russian: НЛО (ru) m (NLO)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: НЛО

  Roman: NLO

• Slovak: UFO (sk)
• Slovene: NLP (sl)
• Spanish: ovni (es) m
• Swedish: ufo (sv) n
• Tamil: பறக்கும்தட்டு (ta) (paṟakkumtaṭṭu)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: UFO (tr), ufo, uçan daire (tr)
• Ukrainian: НЛО (NLO)
• Uzbek: NUJ
• Vietnamese: UFO, vật thể bay không xác định

See also

unidentified flying object

• flying saucer
• IFO

Anagrams

• fou

Czech

Noun

UFO

1. UFO

Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Estonian

Etymology

From English UFO.

Noun

UFO

1. UFO

References

• UFO in Sõnaveeb (Eesti Keele Instituut)

Finnish

Etymology

English UFO

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈufo/, [ˈufo̞]
• Rhymes: -ufo
• Hyphenation^(key): U‧FO

Noun

UFO

1. UFO (unidentified flying object)

German

Alternative forms

• Ufo

Etymology

Borrowed from English UFO, initialism of unidentified flying object, itself translated into German as unidentifiziertes Flugobjekt or more commonly unbekanntes Flugobjekt.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈuːfo/
• It is entirely unusual to pronounce the letters individually and such a pronunciation would be unlikely to be understood.

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

UFO n (strong, genitive UFOs or UFO, plural UFOs or UFO)

1. UFO

Declension

Declension of UFO [neuter, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	das	UFO	die	UFOs, UFO
genitive	eines	des	UFOs, UFO	der	UFOs, UFO
dative	einem	dem	UFO	den	UFOs, UFO
accusative	ein	das	UFO	die	UFOs, UFO

Derived terms

• UFO-Absturz
• UFO-Sichtung
• Ufologe
• Ufologie

See also

• Fliegende Untertasse

Further reading

• “UFO” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Italian

Alternative forms

• ufo

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈu.fo/
• Rhymes: -ufo
• Hyphenation: Ù‧FO

Noun

UFO m (invariable)

1. UFO

   Synonyms: oggetto volante non identificato m, alieno m

Japanese

Etymology

Orthographic borrowing from English UFO, but pronounced like an acronym rather than a mere initialism.

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) ユーフォー [yúꜜùfòò] (Atamadaka – [1])
• IPA^(key): [jɯ̟ːɸo̞ː]

Noun

UFO(ユーフォー) • (yūfō) 

1. Synonym of 未確認飛行物体 (mikakunin hikō buttai, “unidentified flying object”); a UFO

See also

• UMA(ユーマ) (yūma)

Polish

UFO

Alternative forms

• ufo

Etymology

Orthographic borrowing from English UFO.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈu.fɔ/
• Rhymes: -ufɔ
• Syllabification: U‧FO

Noun

UFO n (indeclinable)

1. (science fiction, ufology) UFO, unidentified flying object

   Synonyms: latający spodek, latający talerz, niezidentyfikowany obiekt latający, ufo

Derived terms

nouns

• ufologia
• ufoludek

Related terms

adjective

• ufologiczny

nouns

• ufo
• ufolog

Further reading

• UFO in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• UFO in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• ufo

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English UFO.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈu.fo/
• It is uncommon for the letters to be pronounced individually.

Noun

UFO m (plural UFOs)

1. Synonym of OVNI

Related terms

• ufologia
• ufológico
• ufólogo

Swedish

Noun

UFO n

1. Alternative form of ufo

Declension

Declension of UFO

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	UFO	UFO:s
	definite	UFO:t	UFO:ts
plural	indefinite	UFO:n	UFO:ns
	definite	UFO:na	UFO:nas

References

• UFO in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)