Word.ws English Dictionary

quillon

Syllables: quill·on/ˈkwɪlən/US/ˈkwɪlən/

quillon noun: synonym of crossguard (“a metal bar fixed between, and at right angles to, the blade and the handle of a sword or other bladed weapon that stops an opponent's similar weapon from sliding along the blade and injuring the hand of the person wielding the sword”).

Noun

quillon (plural quillons)

  1. Synonym of crossguard (“a metal bar fixed between, and at right angles to, the blade and the handle of a sword or other bladed weapon that stops an opponent's similar weapon from sliding along the blade and injuring the hand of the person wielding the sword”).
    • Holonym: hilt
    • The Sword of State which is carried before the King at the opening of Parliament is quite a different weapon. It is a long, two-handed sword, with a gold hilt and quillion, and is encased in a crimson velvet scabbard. […] The quillion of the sword is formed of an elongated lion on one side, and a...1921, George Younghusband, “The Regalia—continued”, in The Jewel House: An Account of the Many Romances Connected with the Royal Regalia […], London: Herbert Jenkins […], →OCLC, page 53
    Synonyms:
    guard, crossguard
  2. (in plural) Either of the two arms of a crossguard.
    • Holonyms: crossguard, guard < hilt
    • The guard against the cut is technically called the cross[-]guard[…]. This section is composed of one or more bars projecting from the hilt between tang and blade, and receiving the edge of the adversary's weapon should it happen to glance or to glide downwards. The quillons may be either...1884, Richard F[rancis] Burton, “The Sword: What is It?”, in The Book of the Sword, London: Chatto and Windus, […], →OCLC, page 125

quillon meaning in Assamese, Persian and Thai

quillon in Assamese

synonym of crossguard (cognates) — see also crossguard
কুইলিয়ন kuilin

quillon in Persian

synonym of crossguard (cognates) — see also crossguard
میلیارد

quillon in Thai

synonym of crossguard (cognates) — see also crossguard
ควิลเลียน

Examples of quillon in a sentence

  • At that point it swells rapidly to form a broad quillon, and a branch swings out in a full semi-circle on the obverse side, joining the quillon again at its tip above the blade.1965, Harold L[eslie] Peterson, “Officers’ Swords”, in The American Sword 1775–1945, revised edition, Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications...
  • The quillons may be either straight[…]—that is, disposed at right angles—or curved[…].1884, Richard F[rancis] Burton, “The Sword: What is It?”, in The Book of the Sword, London: Chatto and Windus, […], →OCLC, page 125:
  • With regard to the quillons, it was obvious that with slight alteration they might be made to protect the hand very much more than they did in their straight condition.1885, Egerton Castle, “The Sword during the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries”, in Schools and Masters of Fence: From the...
  • It should be pointed out that the true "claymore" or Claidheamh-mor was a two-handed sword with plain quillons sloped towards the blade.1938, Charles ffoulkes, E[dward] C[ampbell] Hopkinson, “Swords of the Army [Infantry]”, in Sword, Lance & Bayonet: A Record of the Arms of...

Synonyms of quillon

Forms of quillon

pluralquillons
alternative formquillion

Origin of quillon

Unadapted borrowing from French quillon (literally “little ninepin”), from quille (“club; ninepin, skittle”) (from the similar appearance) + -on (diminutive suffix). Quille is derived from Middle High German kegel (“club”), from Old High German kegil, from Proto-West Germanic *kagil (“pile, pole, stake; peg, pin”), from *kagō (“bush, shrub”) + *-il (diminutive suffix).

Questions about quillon

What does quillon mean?
Quillon means synonym of crossguard (“a metal bar fixed between, and at right angles to, the blade and the handle of a sword or other bladed weapon that stops an opponent's similar weapon from sliding along the blade and injuring the hand of the person wielding the sword”).
What is quillon in Assamese?
Quillon in Assamese is কুইলিয়ন (kuilin). See Quillon meaning in Assamese.
How do you use quillon in a sentence?
At that point it swells rapidly to form a broad quillon, and a branch swings out in a full semi-circle on the obverse side, joining the quillon again at its tip above the blade.
What part of speech is quillon?
Quillon is a noun.
How do you pronounce quillon?
Quillon is pronounced /ˈkwɪlən/ (UK).
What is the plural of quillon?
The plural of quillon is quillons.

Words near quillon in the dictionary

  1. quillions
  2. quillless
  3. quilllike
  4. quillman
  5. quillmen
  6. quillon
  7. quillons
  8. Quillota
  9. quillow
  10. quillows
  11. quills

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: quillon (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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