What does "quinquereme" mean?

An ancient Carthaginian or Greek galley having three banks of oars, rowed by five oarsmen: two to an oar in each of the upper rows, and one to the lower oar.

What is a synonym for "quinquereme"?

Common synonyms include: galley, penteconter, pentere, pentere, pentereme, pentereme.

Quinquereme

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
An ancient Carthaginian or Greek galley having three banks of oars, rowed by five oarsmen: two to an oar in each of the upper rows, and one to the lower oar. historical
"Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir / Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine / With a cargo of ivory, / And apes and peacocks, / Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine."

Synonyms

All synonyms

galley penteconter pentere pentere pentereme pentereme

Example

More examples

"Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir / Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine / With a cargo of ivory, / And apes and peacocks, / Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine."

Etymology

From Latin quīnquerēmis (“5-oared”), from quīnque (“five”) + rēmus (“oar”) + -is (suffix forming compound adjectives).

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