ordnance
Americannoun
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cannon or artillery.
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military weapons with their equipment, ammunition, etc.
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the branch of an army that procures, stores, and issues, weapons, munitions, and combat vehicles and maintains arsenals for their development and testing.
noun
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cannon or artillery
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military supplies; munitions
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a department of an army or government dealing with military supplies
Etymology
Origin of ordnance
First recorded in 1620–30; syncopated variant of ordinance
Explanation
Ordnance is another word for military supplies, like guns, rockets, or armor. When a country is at war, it needs a lot of ordnance. The average person has probably never heard of ordnance. In fact, an ordinary person would have some explaining to do if they had ordnance, because it refers to military supplies. The word ordinance for “command” lost an i in the 1500’s and became ordnance, meaning “military materials.” Both words go with war — a command to shoot requires ordnance, or something to shoot with. Ordnance helps soldiers fight and protect them. You can’t go to war without ordnance.
Vocabulary lists containing ordnance
The Things They Carried
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All the Light We Cannot See
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Life of Pi
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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.
The rest of us would like to live tolerantly in some form or fashion without using nuclear ordnance on each other.
From Salon • Apr. 10, 2026
Landmines remain an ongoing risk to Cambodia, and more than a million people continue to work and live on land contaminated by mines and unexploded ordnance, according to the United Nations.
From BBC • Apr. 4, 2026
Instead, one of the men took the ordnance home and either left it in their truck overnight, or brought it into their house, the claim alleges.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 25, 2026
Around a fifth of Ukraine is contaminated by mines or unexploded ordnance, according to the UN's Mine Action Service.
From Barron's • Feb. 23, 2026
The shield was heavier than I would have liked, but do soldiers ever get to choose their ordnance?
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
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.
