artillery

noun

ar·​til·​lery är-ˈti-lə-rē 

-ˈtil-rē

plural artilleries

1

: weapons (such as bows, slings, and catapults) for discharging missiles

2

a

: large bore mounted firearms (such as guns, howitzers, and rockets) : ordnance

especially : such ordnance that is capable of long-range indirect fire at a target too distant to be seen

b

: a branch of an army armed with artillery

3

: a means of impressing, arguing, persuading, or competing

… indicated that the Bureau had not rolled out its heavy artillery for a full-scale investigation.

—Herbert Mitgang

Synonyms of artillery

• guns
• weapons

Examples of artillery in a Sentence

The troops were being bombarded by artillery.

a captain in the artillery

Recent Examples on the Web

Unfortunately, some of Ukraine’s military leaders—who were raised under Soviet doctrine—are doing just this, using available fighter aircraft as simply airborne artillery. — David A. Deptula, Forbes.com, 30 June 2026

Modern armored warfare has shown that even the world’s most advanced main battle tanks perform best when integrated with drones, infantry, artillery, electronic warfare, and effective command-and-control networks. — Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 30 June 2026

IranWire reported earlier in June that YRK accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of launching artillery and mortar attacks against its positions near Marivan, Iran, beginning June 8, prompting what YRK described as a defensive response. — Efrat Lachter, FOXNews.com, 30 June 2026

At one point in March, Syria accused Hezbollah of launching artillery shells across the border toward Syrian army positions, which Hezbollah denied. — ABC News, 28 June 2026

Word History

Etymology

Middle English artilrie, artillerie "instruments of war, weapons for discharging missiles," borrowed from Anglo-French & continental Middle French artelrie, artillerie, from Old French artillier "to equip, provide with instruments of war" (alteration, probably after art "skill, craft, art entry 1" and its derivatives, of atiller, atillier "to order, adjust, put on pieces of armor") + -rie, -erie -ery; atiller, atillier going back to Vulgar Latin *apticulāre, from Latin aptāre "to put into position, bring to bear, make ready" + Vulgar Latin *-iculāre, as in *appariculāre "to prepare, equip, apparel entry 2" — more at adapt

Note: The expected outcome of *apticulāre would be *ateiller rather than atiller, which would appear to derive from *aptīculāre; the discrepancy has been explained as a result of interference from the semantically similar verb atirier, atirer "to equip, prepare" (see attire entry 1).

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing artillery

• artillery pieces
• field artillery
• heavy artillery

Rhymes for artillery

• distillery
• intermaxillary
• pillory
• premaxillary
• submaxillary

Kids Definition

artillery

noun

ar·​til·​lery är-ˈtil-(ə-)rē 

plural artilleries

1

: large firearms (as cannon or rockets)

2

: a branch of an army armed with artillery

artilleryman

-mən

noun