Word.ws English Dictionary

Whitworth gun

Whitworth gun noun: a form of rifled cannon and small arms. The bore has a polygonal section, and the twist is rapid. The ball, which is pointed in front, is made to fit the bore accurately, and is very much elongated, its length being about three-and-a-half times its diameter.

Noun

Whitworth gun (plural Whitworth guns)

  1. A form of rifled cannon and small arms. The bore has a polygonal section, and the twist is rapid. The ball, which is pointed in front, is made to fit the bore accurately, and is very much elongated, its length being about three-and-a-half times its diameter.
    • THE WHITWORTH GUN. — Mr. Whitworth, of Manchester, has succeeded in constructing several rifled breech-loading cannon of various calibres: his 3-pounder gun, 208 lbs. in weight, with a calibre of 1½ inches, a charge of 8 oz. of powder,[…]1863, Henry Lee Scott, Military Dictionary

Forms of Whitworth gun

pluralWhitworth guns

Origin of Whitworth gun

Invented by Sir Joseph Whitworth of Manchester, England.

Questions about Whitworth gun

What does Whitworth gun mean?
Whitworth gun means a form of rifled cannon and small arms. The bore has a polygonal section, and the twist is rapid. The ball, which is pointed in front, is made to fit the bore accurately, and is very much elongated, its length being about three-and-a-half times its diameter.
What part of speech is Whitworth gun?
Whitworth gun is a noun.
What is the plural of Whitworth gun?
The plural of Whitworth gun is Whitworth guns.

Words near Whitworth gun in the dictionary

  1. Whitwellian
  2. Whitwells
  3. Whitwick
  4. Whitwood
  5. Whitworth
  6. Whitworth gun
  7. Whitworth guns
  8. Whitworths
  9. whity
  10. Whixall
  11. Whixley

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Whitworth gun (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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