Ammunition

How to spell ammunition

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce ammunition

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ammunition mean?

1. nounBullets, shells, and other projectiles fired from weapons, together with their explosive charges.
2. nounFacts or arguments gathered to support a case or attack an opponent in a dispute.

Ammunition in a sentence

• The soldiers ran low on ammunition during the long siege.

• The leaked memo gave the opposition fresh ammunition for the debate.

• The factory produced ammunition around the clock during the war.

• She collected receipts and emails as ammunition for the formal complaint.

Where does ammunition come from?

Language of origin: French

This word came into English in the late 1500s from French and carries a famous spelling accident inside it. The French had la munition, meaning supplies for war, drawn from the Latin munitio, which meant a fortification or defensive structure, itself from the verb munire, to fortify or protect. English soldiers and writers misheard or misparsed the French phrase la munition as l'amunition, attaching the final sound of the article to the front of the noun, and the extra a- stuck permanently. That is why we now write the doubled m and the leading a that the original Latin munitio never had. The same munire root survives more transparently in 'munitions' and in 'muniment', and the sense narrowed over time from general war supplies to specifically the bullets, shells, and explosive charges fired from weapons.

How the word is built

• am- (assimilated from the French article, misdivided onto the noun)
• mun (fortify, defend)
• -ition (noun suffix)