musket
Americannoun
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muskets
plural
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a heavy, large-caliber smoothbore gun for infantry soldiers, introduced in the 16th century: the predecessor of the modern rifle.
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the male sparrow hawk, Accipiter nisus.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of musket
1580–90; < Middle French mousquet < Italian moschetto crossbow arrow, later musket, originally kind of hawk, equivalent to mosch ( a ) fly (< Latin musca ) + -etto -et
Explanation
A musket is a long, front-loaded, over-the-shoulder gun. Muskets have been used in many wars, such as the American Civil War. There are many types of guns. One that's gone out of style is the musket. This weapon of choice for infantrymen was distinctive in a few ways. It was fired over your shoulder (or sometimes mounted on a stand), and it had a very long barrel. It was also muzzle-loaded, which means it was loaded through the front of the gun, not the back, like most contemporary guns.
Vocabulary lists containing musket
Star-Spangled Vocabulary: Patriotic Words
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The American Civil War
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The American Revolution - Introductory
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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.
See Examples For:
Then, in 1814, a musket ball smashed his left forearm.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 7, 2026
A gun's rear sight and a musket side plate found nearby offer some support for that interpretation.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
The Spaniard brought only 11 ships, some 450 men, 16 horses and a modest collection of cannons, crossbows and arquebuses, precursors to the musket.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025
A musket ball is a type of ammunition used in muskets, which are long-barrelled, muzzle-loaded firearms that were commonly used from the 16th to the 19th centuries.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2024
While he slept, a spark must have lit the powder bag—a spark from someone’s pipe or from the slow match on someone’s musket.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
One of Whitney’s next ventures was manufacturing muskets for the federal government.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 23, 2025
A musket ball is a type of ammunition used in muskets, which are long-barrelled, muzzle-loaded firearms that were commonly used from the 16th to the 19th centuries.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2024
An initial excavation last summer revealed chimney bases and uncovered a military buckle and lead shot for muskets.
From Seattle Times ● May 16, 2024
With muskets drawn, Napoleon asks the chambers, “Shall we vote?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2024
Men scurried past us without so much as their muskets, leaping into the ditch we had dug across the promontory, and confusion everywhere reigned supreme.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
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.
