cannoneer

Syllables: can·non·eer/kænəˈnɪə//ˌkænəˈnɪ(ə)ɹ/

cannoneer noun: an artillery soldier who maintains and operates (historical) a cannon, or (now) some other piece of heavy artillery.

Image: Gladstone (Sgt), No 2 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

cannoneer (plural cannoneers)

An artillery soldier who maintains and operates (historical) a cannon, or (now) some other piece of heavy artillery.
- Luckily, the cannoneer was only mildly injured when his cannon malfunctioned.
- Then ſe the bringing of our ordinance / Along the trench into the battery, / VVhere vve vvil haue gabions of ſix foot broad / To ſaue our Cannoniers from muſket ſhot, […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The Second Part […], 2nd edition, part 2, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
Synonyms:

bombardier, cannoner, gunner

cannoneer meaning in Urdu, Arabic and Malay

cannoneer in Arabic

artillery soldier who maintains and operates a cannon, or some other piece of heavy artillery: توپچي

cannoneer in Malay

artillery soldier who maintains and operates a cannon, or some other piece of heavy artillery: ganar

Examples of cannoneer in a sentence

The Irish cannoneers stood gallantly to their pieces till they were cut down to a man.1851, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume III, London...
Just as the spring came laughing through the strife / With all its gorgeous cheer; / In the bright April of historic life / Fell the great cannoneer.1894 (date written), James R[yder] Randall, “John Pelham”, in H. M. Wharton, compiler, War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy...
The American cannoneers, normally positioned well behind the front lines, found themselves unexpectedly thrust into a firefight.2002, Mark J. Reardon, “The Lost Battalion”, in Victory at Mortain: Stopping Hitler’s Panzer Counteroffensive (Modern War Studies)...

Synonyms of cannoneer

Forms of cannoneer

plural	cannoneers
alternative form	cannonier

Origin of cannoneer

Borrowed from French canonnier, with the ending reshaped to English -eer (suffix forming agent nouns denoting people associated with, concerned with, or engaged in specified activities). Canonnier is derived from Middle French cannonier, canonnier, from canon (“cannon”) (from cane (from Old French cane (“tube”), from Latin canna (“cane; reed; something resembling a cane”), from Ancient Greek κᾰ́ννᾰ (kắnnă, “giant reed (Arundo donax)”), from Akkadian 𒂵𒉡𒌑𒌝 (qanûm, “reed”)) + -on (augmentative suffix)) + -ier (suffix denoting a profession). By surface analysis, cannon + -eer.

Words formed from cannoneer

cannoneering

Words that rhyme with cannoneer

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about cannoneer

What does cannoneer mean?: Cannoneer means an artillery soldier who maintains and operates (historical) a cannon, or (now) some other piece of heavy artillery.
What is cannoneer in Urdu?: Cannoneer in Urdu is توپ انداز, توپچی. See Cannoneer meaning in Urdu.
How do you use cannoneer in a sentence?: The Irish cannoneers stood gallantly to their pieces till they were cut down to a man.
What part of speech is cannoneer?: Cannoneer is a noun.
How do you pronounce cannoneer?: Cannoneer is pronounced /kænəˈnɪə/ (UK).
What is the plural of cannoneer?: The plural of cannoneer is cannoneers.

Words near cannoneer in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: cannoneer (page history and authors); cannoneer (Urdu Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cannoneer.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-cannoneer.wav.

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