Word.ws English Dictionary

lance

UK/lɑːns//læns/

lance noun: a weapon of war, consisting of a long shaft or handle and a steel blade or head; a spear carried by horsemen.

lance: a weapon of war, consisting of a long shaft or handle and a steel blade or head; a spear carried by...
Image: Iry-Hor, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

lance (plural lances)

  1. A weapon of war, consisting of a long shaft or handle and a steel blade or head; a spear carried by horsemen.
    • Thy brother’s blood the thirsty earth hath drunk, Broach’d with the steely point of Clifford’s lance[…]c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
    • The head of the lance was commonly of the leaf form, and sometimes approached that of the lozenge; it was very seldom barbed, although this variety, together with the others, appears upon the Bayeux Tapestry.1909, Charles Henry Ashdown, European Arms & Armor, page 65
  2. A wooden spear, sometimes hollow, used in jousting or tilting, designed to shatter on impact with the opposing knight’s armour.
    • What will you do, good greybeard? Break a lance, And run a-tilt at Death within a chair?1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  3. A spear or harpoon used by whalers and fishermen.
  4. A soldier armed with a lance; a lancer.
  5. An instrument which conveys the charge of a piece of ordnance and forces it home.
  6. A small iron rod which suspends the core of the mold in casting a shell.
  7. (pyrotechnics) One of the small paper cases filled with combustible composition, which mark the outlines of a figure.
  8. A lancet.
  9. A piece in the game of shogi that can move directly forward any number of squares.

Verb

lance (third-person singular simple present lances, present participle lancing, simple past and past participle lanced)

  1. To pierce with a lance, or with any similar weapon.
    • Seiz'd the due Victim, and with Fury lanch'd Her Back1700, [John] Dryden, “Theodore and Honoria, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 268
  2. To open with a lancet; to prick or cut open with a sharp instrument; to pierce.
    • to lance a vein or an abscess
  3. To throw in the manner of a lance; to lanch.
  4. (informal) To steal or swipe.
    • He lanced my drink and spiked it!
  5. To move suddenly and quickly.

Proper noun capitalized: Lance

Lance (plural Lances)

  1. A surname originating as a patronymic.
  2. A diminutive of the male given name Lancelot.
  3. A male given name transferred from the surname.

lance meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

lance in Hindi

लांस

lance in Tamil

மீனெறிவேல், ஈட்டி, வேல்

lance in Marathi

लान्स

lance in Urdu

بلم, برچھی, بھالا, نیزہ
More languagesFewer languages
lance in Bengali
বর্শা, বল্লম, ভল্ল, অস্ত্র করা
lance in Telugu
లాన్స్
lance in Malayalam
ചവളം cavaḷaṁ, വേല്‍ vēl
lance in Kannada
ಭರ್ಜಿ bharji, ಈಟಿ īṭi
lance in Punjabi
ਲਾਂਸ
lance in Gujarati
લાન્સ
lance in Odia
ଲାନ୍ସ
lance in Sanskrit
शल्य śalya
lance in Nepali
लान्स, लान्स गर्न
lance in Tagalog
tulag
lance in Malay
tombak
lance in Indonesian
ganjur
lance in Persian
نیزه neyze, نیزهور neyze-var
lance in Thai
ทวน tuuan

Examples of lance in a sentence

  • The knight was unhorsed when his opponent's lance struck his shield.
  • Lance is going to get Mary a ring.
  • I saw the picador lance the bull.

All 31 example sentences with lance

Forms of lance

Noun
plurallances
Verb
third-person singular presentlances
present participlelancing
past participlelanced
pastlanced
Proper noun
pluralLances

Plural of lance: lances

Origin of lance

From Middle English launce, from Old French lance, from Latin lancea.

The surname is derived from a medieval given name Lanzo, short form of names beginning with the Germanic element *land; see land. Doublet of Lanzo.

Words formed from lance

Phrases with lance

5 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with lance

4 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about lance

What does lance mean?
Lance means a weapon of war, consisting of a long shaft or handle and a steel blade or head; a spear carried by horsemen.
What is lance in Hindi?
Lance in Hindi is लांस. See Lance meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is lance?
Lance can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce lance?
Lance is pronounced /lɑːns/ (UK).
What is the plural of lance?
The plural of lance is lances.

Words near lance in the dictionary

  1. Lancaster Sound
  2. Lancasterian
  3. Lancasterism
  4. Lancastrian
  5. Lancastrians
  6. lance
  7. lance bombardier
  8. lance bombardiers
  9. lance corporal
  10. lance corporals
  11. Lance Cove

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lance (page history and authors); Lance (page history and authors); lance (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lance (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lance (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lance (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lance (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lance (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ചവളം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಈಟಿ (Kannada) (page history and authors); lance (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lance (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lance (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lance (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-lance.ogg.

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