artillery
Americannoun
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mounted projectile-firing guns or missile launchers, mobile or stationary, light or heavy, as distinguished from small arms.
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the troops or the branch of an army concerned with the use and service of such weapons.
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the science that treats of the use of such weapons.
noun
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guns, cannon, howitzers, mortars, etc, of calibre greater than 20 mm
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troops or military units specializing in using such guns
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the science dealing with the use of guns
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devices for discharging heavy missiles, such as catapults or slings
Etymology
Origin of artillery
1350–1400; Middle English artil ( le ) rie, artelry, art ( u ) ry armaments, ballistic engines < Anglo-French, Middle French artillerie, equivalent to Old French artill ( ier ) to equip, arm, alteration, by association with art art 1, of atill ( i ) er to set in order, put on armor (< Vulgar Latin *apticulāre, derivative of Latin aptāre to put on (armor, ornaments, etc.; see adapt); -i- for expected -ei- perhaps by association with atirier; see attire) + -erie -ery
Explanation
Artillery refers to large-caliber guns — guns with big barrels — which can be moved from one place to another for land battles. The artillery is also the name for the army unit that uses these big guns. If you're a military commander and you say, "Bring in the heavy artillery," you're ordering the artillery to move into place and get ready for action. But if you're talking to fellow members of your debate team and you say, “Bring in the heavy artillery,” you mean "bring in our best debaters, our heaviest hitters." Artillery can refer to one weapon or 100 — the singular and plural are the same.
Vocabulary lists containing artillery
A Long Walk to Water
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The Things They Carried
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World War I
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Howitzers are put together from metal subsystems, such as the barrel, the breech mechanism the shell is loaded into and hydraulics that reduce recoil when artillery fires.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
The success of the L119 and the much larger BAE Systems’ M777 in Ukraine proved the continued utility of towed artillery systems in warfare.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Highly flammable when treated with acid, it acts as a propellant, triggering a violent expansion of gas needed to launch artillery up to 70 miles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
One drone was used to blow up Russian artillery, but mostly, the Neros founders realized they had a lot to learn about getting a drone made for racing over a cornfield hardened for war.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
Across the aisle from Yossarian was Dunbar, and next to Dunbar was the artillery captain with whom Yossarian had stopped playing chess.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
