What does "howitzer" mean?

A cannon that combines certain characteristics of field guns and mortars, delivering projectiles with medium velocities, usually with relatively high trajectories; normally a cannon with a tube length of 20 to 30 calibers.

What is a synonym for "howitzer"?

Common synonyms include: gun, mortar, mortar, six shooter, trench mortar.

How do you pronounce "howitzer"?

Pronounced //ˈhaʊ.ɪts.əɹ//.

Howitzer

//ˈhaʊ.ɪts.əɹ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A cannon that combines certain characteristics of field guns and mortars, delivering projectiles with medium velocities, usually with relatively high trajectories; normally a cannon with a tube length of 20 to 30 calibers.
2
a muzzle-loading high-angle gun with a short barrel that fires shells at high elevations for a short range wordnet
3
A powerfully hit shot.
"Belgium took a little while to catch Scotland with the first of the howitzer blows, but when the first one landed there was a certainty of more. Many more."

Verb

1
To attack with a howitzer. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms

gun mortar mortar six shooter trench mortar

Example

More examples

"Belgium took a little while to catch Scotland with the first of the howitzer blows, but when the first one landed there was a certainty of more. Many more."

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch houwitser, from German Haubitze, from Middle High German haufniz, from Czech houfnice, which was derived from houf (“flock, crowd”) + -nice. The Czech noun houf comes from Middle High German hufe (“heap”), from Old High German hūfo.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.