Plain English Meaning
A wing that is much wider where it joins the fuselage than at the tip, narrowing strongly along its length.
Full Definition
A wing planform in which the chord (front-to-back width) decreases sharply from the root (where the wing meets the fuselage) to the tip. The ratio of root chord to tip chord is large, giving the wing a strongly tapered, narrow-tipped shape when viewed from above.
Context Anchor
Seen in discussions of wing shape, lift distribution, and stall behavior in the Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge.
Derivation
Taper' comes from Old English 'tapor', meaning a candle that narrows toward its top. Applied to a wing, it describes the same idea: a shape that gets progressively narrower from one end to the other. '' here means a large degree of taper, not a or .