Keelson

noun

noun ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A longitudinal beam fastened on top of the keel of a vessel for strength and stiffness.

    "With regard to materials, all the frames should be of oak and so should the stem piece, stern post, upper portion of dead woods, knight heads, apron, beams, shelf clamp, bilge strakes, and keelson; the keel will generally be found to be either English or American elm."

  2. 2
    a longitudinal beam connected to the keel of ship to strengthen it wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
companionpartsship

Example

More examples

"With regard to materials, all the frames should be of oak and so should the stem piece, stern post, upper portion of dead woods, knight heads, apron, beams, shelf clamp, bilge strakes, and keelson; the keel will generally be found to be either English or American elm."

Etymology

Late Middle English kelswayn, from Low German kielswîn, kielswīn, from kiel (“keel of a ship”) (from Old Norse kjǫlr) + swin (“swine”), used as the name of a timber (however, compare sill). Compare with Dutch kolzwijn, kolsem, Low German, kielswîn, German Kielschwein, Danish kølsvin, kölsvin, all with the same meaning.

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