musketeer
Americannoun
noun
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.
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
D’Artagnan is “the musketeer team, you know,” Daguin said, referencing the swashbuckling character after whom she named her company.
From Washington Post • May 23, 2020
The instigator is that musketeer of the digital age, the whistleblower.
From The Guardian • Apr. 6, 2016
I did not fully recover for months, and I still wear the scar given me by that musketeer.
From Geronimo's Story of His Life by Geronimo
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.
