Word.ws English Dictionary

petards

UK/pɪˈtɑːdz/US/pɪˈtɑɹdz/

petards is the plural of petard.

petards is the third-person singular simple present indicative of petard.

Meaning of petard

Noun

petard (plural petards)

  1. (historical) A small, hat-shaped explosive device, used to breach a door or wall.
    • For tis the ſport to haue the enginer / Hoiſt with his ovvne petar, an't ſhall goe hard / But I vvill delue one yard belovve their mines, / And blovve them at the Moone: […]c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604...
  2. Anything potentially explosive, in a non-literal sense.
  3. (rare) A loud firecracker.

See all 5 meanings of petard

Words that rhyme with petards

8 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about petards

What is petards the plural of?
Petards is the plural of petard.
How do you pronounce petards?
Petards is pronounced /pɪˈtɑːdz/ (UK).

Words near petards in the dictionary

  1. petardeer
  2. petardeers
  3. petardier
  4. petardiers
  5. petarding
  6. petards
  7. Petare
  8. petaries
  9. petarrah
  10. petarrahs
  11. petars

Source and license

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