Artillery

How to spell artillery

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce artillery

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does artillery mean?

1. nounLarge-calibre mounted guns and cannon used in warfare, or the army branch that operates them.

Artillery in a sentence

• The enemy artillery pounded the ridge throughout the night.

• He served in the artillery before transferring to the engineers.

Where does artillery come from?

Language of origin: French

This word arrived in English in the 1300s from the Old French artillerie, which meant warlike equipment or munitions in general. The French noun grew from the verb artillier, meaning to equip or to arm, and behind that lies a tangle of medieval Latin forms such as artillum, probably linked to ars, the Latin word for skill or craft (the same root that gives us 'art'). Originally the term covered any engines of war, including catapults and crossbows, long before gunpowder existed. As cannon came to dominate the battlefield from the 1400s onward, the meaning narrowed to the heavy guns and the branch of an army that operates them. The spelling preserves the double 'l' from the French verb and the '-ery' ending, which is why writers often hesitate over how many l's it really takes.

How the word is built

• artill- (from Old French artillier: to equip, arm)
• -ery (noun suffix denoting a class of things or a craft)