howitzer

US /ˈhaʊɪtsɚ/ UK /ˈhaʊɪtsə/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a short cannon firing shells on a high trajectory at low velocity

The howitzer lobbed shells over the ridge into the valley below.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a short cannon firing... cannon gun artillery mortarfieldpiece

Etymology

From Dutch houwitser, from German Haubitze, from Czech houfnice ('catapult, stone-sling'), originally a Hussite weapon, from houf ('crowd, heap').

houwitser Dutch houfnice Czech

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# howitzer

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈhaʊɪtsɚ/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈhaʊɪtsə/

## Meanings
1. a short cannon firing shells on a high trajectory at low velocity

## Examples
- The howitzer lobbed shells over the ridge into the valley below.

## Synonyms
- cannon
- gun
- artillery
- mortar
- fieldpiece

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: houwitser
- Root: houfnice

## Etymology
From Dutch houwitser, from German Haubitze, from Czech houfnice ('catapult, stone-sling'), originally a Hussite weapon, from houf ('crowd, heap').

## AI Etymology
howitzer comes from Dutch houwitser, from German Haubitze, from Czech houfnice ('catapult, stone-sling'), originally a Hussite weapon, from houf ('crowd, heap'). The history explains the modern form through the named earlier word or formation, without requiring a separate speculative ancestry. In present English, the noun sense is "a short cannon firing shells on a high trajectory at low velocity", so the historical development ends in a clearly identifiable modern dictionary use. Its semantic neighborhood includes cannon, gun, artillery, and mortar, which helps locate the modern sense without adding a separate etymological claim. The named historical forms include Dutch houwitser and Czech houfnice.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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