musketeer
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of musketeer
1580–90; musket + -eer; compare French mousquetaire, equivalent to mousquet musket + -aire -ary
Explanation
In the old days, a musketeer was a soldier who was armed with a muzzle-loading long gun. Before World War I, a musketeer was a member of the infantry who carried a specific type of weapon called a musket. Today, you're probably most likely to find this word referring to the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas called "The Three Musketeers." If you guessed the book is about three soldiers who carry muskets, you're right! It's also not unusual for adults to describe a group of three close pals as "the three musketeers."
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:
More than 350 years after the death of legendary French musketeer d'Artagnan, remains have been found under the floor of a Dutch church that may well have been his.
From BBC ● Mar. 25, 2026
Brosnan’s take on Louis XIV is a velvet-clad, swashbuckling royal with a magnificent mane and plenty of eyeliner, a sort of modernist musketeer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 20, 2022
Here’s William Fotheringham’s pocket guide to today’s stage, which starts at Pau - birthplace of Isaac de Porthau, real-life musketeer and inspiration for Alexandre Dumas’s Porthos, fact fans - and ends at Laruns.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 6, 2020
The story finally kicks into gear when the musketeer Athos, played by Ben Cunis, reads a letter about his son’s misfortune even as we watch it playing out in a gorgeous slow-motion battle.
From Washington Post ● May 16, 2016
In the savannahs the Spaniards were formidable, but in the woods they became a certain prey to the musketeer.
From The Monarchs of the Main, Volume I (of 3) Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers by Thornbury, Walter
On view were hastily brushed, large canvases of musketeers, toreadors, atelier scenes and cavorting couples.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026
The saying "three is a crowd" seems not only to apply to "The Three Investigators" and the three musketeers.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 25, 2024
These three space musketeers bring a collective net worth of almost $400 billion to their out-of-this-world side hustles.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 18, 2021
LIEBER: Gaby, you write about what you call the three buzzkill musketeers of getting better at money: shame, embarrassment and anxiety.
From New York Times ● Feb. 15, 2019
We used to hold out, me and Sammy and Junior and T. Like the four musketeers.
From "How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon
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.
