Word.ws English Dictionary

keelson

keelson noun: a longitudinal beam fastened on top of the keel of a vessel for strength and stiffness.

Noun

keelson (plural keelsons)

  1. A longitudinal beam fastened on top of the keel of a vessel for strength and stiffness.
    • With regard to materials, all the frames should be of oak and so should the stem piece, stern post, upper portion of dead woods, knight heads, apron, beams, shelf clamp, bilge strakes, and keelson; the keel will generally be found to be either English or American elm.1884, Dixon Kemp, A Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing (Fourth Edition), page 13

Forms of keelson

pluralkeelsons

Origin of keelson

Late Middle English kelswayn, from Low German kielswîn, kielswīn, from kiel (“keel of a ship”) (from Old Norse kjǫlr) + swin (“swine”), used as the name of a timber (however, compare sill). Compare with Dutch kolzwijn, kolsem, Low German, kielswîn, German Kielschwein, Danish kølsvin, kölsvin, all with the same meaning.

Questions about keelson

What does keelson mean?
Keelson means a longitudinal beam fastened on top of the keel of a vessel for strength and stiffness.
What part of speech is keelson?
Keelson is a noun.
What is the plural of keelson?
The plural of keelson is keelsons.

Words near keelson in the dictionary

  1. keelless
  2. keelman
  3. keelmen
  4. keels
  5. keels over
  6. keelson
  7. keelsons
  8. Keelung
  9. keely
  10. Keelys
  11. keelyvine pen

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: keelson (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:

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