drone

The word “drone” means an unmanned aircraft or vehicle controlled remotely or by autopilot. In plain terms, most often used today for a remote-controlled flying vehicle, but also a lazy worker, a male bee, or a dull continuous sound.

“Drone” is pronounced drohn (/dɹoʊn/ in IPA).

Here is “drone” used in a sentence: “The company used a drone to film the wedding from above.”

Depending on how it is used, “drone” can be a noun and a verb.

The word “drone” comes from Old English. From Old English drān, an old Germanic word for the male bee — the "buzzing" and "aircraft" senses both grew from this root over time.

“Drone” is a fairly common word in modern English.

“Drone” has 3 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: an unmanned aircraft or vehicle controlled remotely or by autopilot.

In everyday English they refer to the same thing: drone is the common word for an unmanned aircraft, while UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) is the technical and regulatory term. Drone is also broader, covering remotely controlled vehicles in other settings, whereas UAV is aviation-specific.

Yes. A drone is any unmanned aircraft or vehicle controlled remotely or by autopilot, so consumer quadcopters, fixed-wing mapping aircraft, and military UAVs all qualify. In everyday speech, though, "drone" most often calls to mind small rotor-based camera aircraft.

In a beehive, a drone is a male bee that does no work in the hive — it neither forages nor builds comb. By extension, a person who does menial or unthinking work is sometimes called a drone, as in "office drone".