Word.ws English Dictionary

cateran

UK/ˈkatəɹən/

cateran noun: a Highlander working as a professional fighter; a mercenary attached to a Scottish clan.

Noun

cateran (plural caterans)

  1. (historical) A Highlander working as a professional fighter; a mercenary attached to a Scottish clan.
    • And the great-grandson of Cospatric, he joined the English against the cateran Wallace […].1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song
    • They found the hire of lawyers more cost-effective than the maintenance of caterans.2009, John Sadler, Glencoe, Amberley, published 2009, page 41
  2. A freebooter, marauder.

Forms of cateran

pluralcaterans

Origin of cateran

From Scottish Gaelic ceatharn (“troop”), ceathairne (“peasantry, yeomanry”).

Questions about cateran

What does cateran mean?
Cateran means a Highlander working as a professional fighter; a mercenary attached to a Scottish clan.
What part of speech is cateran?
Cateran is a noun.
How do you pronounce cateran?
Cateran is pronounced /ˈkatəɹən/ (UK).
What is the plural of cateran?
The plural of cateran is caterans.

Words near cateran in the dictionary

  1. cater-cornered
  2. cater-cousin
  3. cater-cousins
  4. cater-waiter
  5. cater-waiters
  6. cateran
  7. caterans
  8. catercorner
  9. catercornered
  10. catercorners
  11. catered

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cateran (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.

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