Poliorcetics

//ˌpəʊlɪɔːˈsɛtɪks// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The art of siege warfare, namely, that of conducting or resisting a siege; siegecraft. plural, plural-only

    "The grand battles of the Archaic and early Classical periods were replaced by the new art of poliorcetics."

Synonyms

All synonyms
siegecraft

Example

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"The grand battles of the Archaic and early Classical periods were replaced by the new art of poliorcetics."

Etymology

Partly: * borrowed from Late Latin poliorcetica (“siege engines”) + English -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum) (poliorcetica is derived from Koine Greek πολιορκητικά (poliorkētiká, “things related to sieges”), the neuter plural of πολιορκητικός (poliorkētikós, “relating to poliorcetics, poliorcetic”), from Ancient Greek πολῐορκέω (polĭorkéō, “to besiege, blockade”) (from πόλις (pólis, “city”) + ἕρκος (hérkos, “enclosure; fence”)) + -τῐκός (-tĭkós, suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘of or relating to’)); and * from poliorcetic (“relating to poliorcetics”) + -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum).

Related phrases

siege warfare

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