Word.ws English Dictionary

testudo

testudo noun: a shelter formed by a body of troops holding their shields or targets close together over their heads.

Noun

testudo (plural testudos or testudoes or testudines)

  1. (Ancient-Rome, historical) A shelter formed by a body of troops holding their shields or targets close together over their heads.
    Synonyms:
    sheltron
  2. A shelter of similar shape for miners, etc.
  3. The fornix.
  4. A chelys (kind of lyre)
    Synonyms:
    chelys lyre
  5. An encysted tumour.

Synonyms of testudo

Forms of testudo

pluraltestudos
pluraltestudoes
pluraltestudines

Origin of testudo

Unadapted borrowing from Latin testūdō (“tortoise, turtle, lyre, type of military shelter”).

Questions about testudo

What does testudo mean?
Testudo means a shelter formed by a body of troops holding their shields or targets close together over their heads.
What part of speech is testudo?
Testudo is a noun.
What is the plural of testudo?
The plural of testudo is testudos.

Words near testudo in the dictionary

  1. testudinid
  2. testudinids
  3. testudinoid
  4. testudinoids
  5. testudinous
  6. testudo
  7. testudoes
  8. testudos
  9. testule
  10. testules
  11. testworthiness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: testudo (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: “testudo.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/testudo. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.