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• colt
  colt

  noun

  a young male animal of the horse family.
• Colt
  Colt

  a brand of revolver.

colt

¹ American  

[kohlt] / koʊlt /

noun

• colts
  plural

1. a young male animal of the horse family.

2. a male horse of not more than four years of age.

3. a young or inexperienced person.

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Colt ² American  

[kohlt] / koʊlt /

Trademark.

1. a brand of revolver.

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Colt ³ American  

[kohlt] / koʊlt /

noun

1. Samuel, 1814–62, U.S. inventor of the Colt revolver.

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colt ¹ British  

/ kəʊlt /

noun

1. a male horse or pony under the age of four

2. an awkward or inexperienced young person

3. sport

   1. a young and inexperienced player

   2. a member of a junior team

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Colt ² British  

/ kəʊlt /

noun

1. a type of revolver, pistol, etc

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• colts
  plural

Etymology

Origin of colt

before 1000; Middle English, Old English; compare dialectal Swedish kult little pig

Explanation

A colt is a male horse that's younger than four years old. When your colt is older than four, you can call him a stallion, gelding, or simply a horse. There are many terms for horses, depending what age they are and whether they're male or female. While colt can only refer to a young male, and a female of a similar age would be called a filly, you can talk about a horse of either sex that's between one and two years old as a yearling. The word colt comes directly from Old English, and it originally meant "young ass," or "young camel."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

colt Colt colts

Ron Chernow recounts in his biography of Ulysses Grant a childhood episode in which he was sent to buy a colt with instructions to offer progressively higher sums.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026

DeVaux has done what she can do to prepare her 3-year-old colt, Golden Tempo, for Saturday’s third leg of the Triple Crown.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026

But he is a colt who relishes the distance and he has improved his Beyer Speed Figure with every start.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026

But Sergio de Sousa, managing partner at Hidden Brook, suggested Essential Quality, a champion colt at 2 and 3 at the start of this decade.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2026

Twenty times a day he put his hand on her stomach to feel the colt move.

From "The Red Pony" by John Steinbeck

"We've been talking about swarm technology for a very long time, and we in the military have been waiting for it even longer," said Volodymyr "Colt", the head of civil-military cooperation at Ukraine's 412th brigade.

From Barron's ● May 15, 2026

What Colt Gray did is hardly an anomaly.

From Slate ● Mar. 5, 2026

Each would demand 1.5Gbps of bandwidth, estimates Peter Coppens, VP of product at telecom provider Colt Technology.

From BBC ● Feb. 26, 2026

Ruger is the largest U.S.-listed company, competing with domestic rival Smith & Wesson as well as foreign-owned players including Colt, SIG Sauer and Glock.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2026

The officer handed him the gun: a cavalry revolver, Colt.

From "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara

To his audience, many of them women aged 18 to 30, Johnson presents the world of colts, jockeys and towering headpieces as a networking opportunity.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026

He married Pamela Yellin in 1980, and in 1995 they moved from New Jersey to River Edge Farm, a 110-acre spread in Buellton, Calif., where they raised fillies and colts to become top racehorses.

From New York Times ● Apr. 20, 2024

Is there a record at Santa Anita for 3-year-old colts running on the dirt that trainer Bob Baffert doesn’t own?

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 26, 2023

The two scientists missed watching the colts hatch and grow.

From Scientific American ● Sep. 22, 2023

There was the stallion, three mares, their colts, and two geldings for riding.

From "In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse" by Joseph Marshall III

Related Words

• filly