Word.ws English Dictionary

cannonball

/ˈkænənˌbɔːl/

cannonball noun: a spherical projectile fired from a smoothbore cannon.

cannonball: a spherical projectile fired from a smoothbore cannon
Image: James Stuby, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

cannonball (plural cannonballs)

  1. A spherical projectile fired from a smoothbore cannon.
  2. An explosive-filled hollow iron sphere fused through a hole and intended to explode at a calculated distance rather than explode on impact.
  3. The act of jumping (typically into a swimming pool) with the legs bent and the arms wrapped around the knees to create a large splash, mimicking the flight and shape of a cannonball.
    • The New Yorker, 30 August 2004, p.40
    • The cannonball could be called the S.U.V. of the pool — oversized, brash, hormonally hardwired.
  4. (figuratively, slang) Something that moves fast, especially a fast train.
    • Meetings of the model train club always begin with the song "Wabash Cannonball".
  5. A served ball that travels with great speed and describes little or no arc in flight.

Verb

cannonball (third-person singular simple present cannonballs, present participle cannonballing, simple past and past participle cannonballed)

  1. (intransitive) To jump or dive into water, performing a cannonball landing.
    • He cannonballed into the pool, drenching us all.
  2. (intransitive) To career; to move rapidly.
    • The car cannonballed past.

cannonball meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

cannonball in Hindi

spherical projectile fired from a smoothbore cannon
गोला golā

cannonball in Tamil

பீரங்கிக் குண்டு, வேட்டெஃகக் குண்டு, வேட்டெக்கக் குண்டு, தகரிக்குண்டு, வேட்டெக்கம்

cannonball in Urdu

spherical projectile fired from a smoothbore cannon
گولا golā

cannonball in Bengali

spherical projectile fired from a smoothbore cannon
গোলা gōla
More languagesFewer languages
cannonball in Telugu
గుండు guṇḍu
cannonball in Assamese
গোলা güla

Synonyms of cannonball

Forms of cannonball

Noun
pluralcannonballs
Verb
third-person singular presentcannonballs
present participlecannonballing
past participlecannonballed
pastcannonballed

Plural of cannonball: cannonballs

Origin of cannonball

From cannon + ball from being a round ball that is fired from a cannon.

Words formed from cannonball

Phrases with cannonball

Questions about cannonball

What does cannonball mean?
Cannonball means a spherical projectile fired from a smoothbore cannon.
What is cannonball in Hindi?
Cannonball in Hindi is गोला (golā). See Cannonball meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is cannonball?
Cannonball can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce cannonball?
Cannonball is pronounced /ˈkænənˌbɔːl/.
What is the plural of cannonball?
The plural of cannonball is cannonballs.

Words near cannonball in the dictionary

  1. cannonaders
  2. cannonades
  3. cannonading
  4. cannonadings
  5. Cannonau
  6. cannonball
  7. cannonball effect
  8. cannonball fungi
  9. cannonball fungus
  10. cannonball mangrove
  11. cannonball mangroves

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cannonball (page history and authors); cannonball (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); గుండు (Telugu) (page history and authors); গোলা (Assamese) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-cannonball.ogg.

Cite this entry: “cannonball.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cannonball. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.