musket
/ˈmʌskət/noun
musket is spelled M-U-S-K-E-T: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 32,798th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, musket means “A kind of firearm formerly carried by the infantry of an army, originally fired by means of a match, or matchlock, for which several mechanical…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of musket is muskets.
How many letters and syllables are in musket?
| Letters | 6: M-U-S-K-E-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 32,798th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is musket?
Musket appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 32,798th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce musket?
- /ˈmʌskət/
- /ˈmʌskɪt/
Musket has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-musket.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of musket
- muskets plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does musket mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A kind of firearm formerly carried by the infantry of an army, originally fired by means of a match, or matchlock, for which several mechanical appliances (including the flintlock, and finally the percussion lock) were successively substituted; ultimately superseded by the rifle.
Soldier, soldier, won't you marry me, with your musket, fife and drum.
- 2
A male Eurasian sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Musket in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense firearm:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does musket come from?
First attested around 1210 as a surname, and later in the 1400s as a word for the sparrowhawk (Middle English forms: musket, muskett, muskete (“sparrow hawk”)), from Middle French mousquet, from Old Italian moschetto (a diminutive of mosca (“fly”), from Latin musca) used to refer initially to a sparrowhawk (given its small size or speckled appearance) and then a crossbow arrow.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).