Word.ws English Dictionary

landsknecht

US/ˈlɑntsknɛxt/

landsknecht is the alternative form of lansquenet.

Meaning of lansquenet

Noun

lansquenet (countable and uncountable, plural lansquenets)

  1. (countable, historical) Any of a class of German mercenaries of the 15th and 16th centuries, most of whom were pikemen and foot soldiers.
    • […] arising out of this festival there was established an individual lansquenet tradition, in speech and outward appearance, and the bare, sunburnt necks of the vagabond soldiers, their baggy garments hanging in shreds, and their short swords, could be seen all over the country for long afterwards.1855, Gottfried Keller, translated by A.M. Holt, Green Henry, Calder Publications, published 1960, page 440
  2. (uncountable) A gambling card game in which the dealer is given an initial card and the players another; cards are then turned up until the value (rank) of one of those cards is met.
    • “I'm through with all pawn-games,” I laughed. “Come, let us have a game of lansquenet. Either I will take a farewell fall out of you or you will have your sevenfold revenge”.1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    skin the lamb

Noun capitalized: Landsknecht

Landsknecht (plural Landsknechts or Landsknechte)

  1. (alternative, historical) Alternative form of lansquenet.

Forms of landsknecht

plurallandsknechts
pluralLandsknechts
pluralLandsknechte

Origin of landsknecht

Borrowed from German Landsknecht, from Lands (“of the land”) + Knecht (“servant”). Doublet of lansquenet.

Questions about landsknecht

What is landsknecht the alternative form of?
Landsknecht is the alternative form of lansquenet.
What part of speech is landsknecht?
Landsknecht is a noun.
How do you pronounce landsknecht?
Landsknecht is pronounced /ˈlɑntsknɛxt/ (US).
What is the plural of landsknecht?
The plural of landsknecht is landsknechts.

Words near landsknecht in the dictionary

  1. landsites
  2. landskap
  3. landskaps
  4. landskip
  5. landskips
  6. landsknecht
  7. Landsknechte
  8. landsknechts
  9. landsleit
  10. landslid
  11. landslide

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: landsknecht (page history and authors); Landsknecht (page history and authors); lansquenet (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: “landsknecht.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/landsknecht. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.