Chariot

How to spell chariot

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce chariot

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does chariot mean?

1. nounA two-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle used in ancient times for warfare, racing, or ceremonial processions.

Chariot in a sentence

• The museum displayed a restored Roman chariot beside the armour collection.

• Each racer guided his chariot around the stadium track at terrifying speed.

Where does chariot come from?

Language of origin: French

The word came into English from Old French chariot, a word built on char, meaning a cart or wagon, with a diminutive ending tacked on. The French char in turn descended from the Latin carrus, which named a four-wheeled baggage wagon; intriguingly, the Romans had themselves borrowed carrus from the Gaulish Celts, whose word for such a vehicle entered Latin through military contact. English adopted chariot in the late 1300s and early 1400s, first for any stately or ceremonial carriage and later, more familiarly, for the light two-wheeled vehicle drawn by horses in ancient warfare and racing. The same carrus root sits quietly inside several everyday words, including 'car', 'carry', 'cargo' and 'carriage', which shows how one ancient wagon spawned a whole family of transport words. The spelling trap is the soft 'ch' that sounds like the English 'ch' in 'church' yet the unfamiliar tail '-iot', where the i and o sit together and the ending is easy to scramble.

How the word is built

• char- (from Latin carrus: wheeled wagon)
• -iot (diminutive suffix from Old French)