Word.ws English Dictionary

zouave

Syllables: Zou·ave/zuːˈɑːv/US/zuˈɑv/

zouave noun: a French soldier in the Union army of the Unites States civil war, or a Union soldier in a French soldier's uniform.

Noun (1)

zouave (plural zouaves)

  1. (historical) a French soldier in the Union army of the Unites States civil war, or a Union soldier in a French soldier's uniform.
    • The French soldiers, for whom this uniform was patterned and made, were, as a rule, much smaller in stature than the American soldier, and hence the imported zouave uniforms distributed, in many cases, were entirely too short for the many giants in stature in the One Hundred and Fifty-fifth...1910, Under the Maltese Cross, Antietam to Appomattox: The Loyal Uprising in Western Pennsylvania, 1861-1865; Campaigns 155th Pennsylvania Regiment, Pittsburgh, PA: 155th Regimental Association, page...
    • During the Civil War in the United States, some of the Northern Volunteer regiments adpoted ^([sic]) the zouave uniforms and were known as zouaves.1918, Grosvenor Library Bulletin, volume 1, number 1, Buffalo, NY: Grosvenor Library, page 19

Noun (2) capitalized: Zouave

Zouave (plural Zouaves)

  1. (historical) One of a body of soldiers in the French service, originally Kabyle, but now composed of Frenchmen who wear the Kabyle dress.
  2. (broadly, historical) One of a body of soldiers who adopt the dress and drill of the Zouaves in French service, as was done by a number of volunteer regiments in the army of the United States in the Civil War (1861–65).

zouave meaning in Tamil

zouave in Tamil

மகளிர் குறுங்கச்சு வகை

Forms of zouave

pluralzouaves
pluralZouaves

Origin of zouave

Borrowed from Arabic زَوَاوِيّ (zawāwiyy).

From French, from Arabic زَوَاوِيّ (zawāwiyy), used to refer to a Kabyle soldier, especially of the Igawawen people.

Words formed from zouave

Words that rhyme with zouave

Questions about zouave

What does zouave mean?
Zouave means a French soldier in the Union army of the Unites States civil war, or a Union soldier in a French soldier's uniform.
What is zouave in Tamil?
Zouave in Tamil is மகளிர் குறுங்கச்சு வகை. See Zouave meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is zouave?
Zouave is a noun.
How do you pronounce zouave?
Zouave is pronounced /zuːˈɑːv/ (UK).
What is the plural of zouave?
The plural of zouave is zouaves.

Words near zouave in the dictionary

  1. Zotzile
  2. Zotziles
  3. Zotzils
  4. zotzing
  5. Zou
  6. zouave
  7. zouave jacket
  8. zouaves
  9. zoubekite
  10. Zouch
  11. Zoucheng

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: zouave (page history and authors); Zouave (page history and authors); zouave (Tamil Wiktionary) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Zouave.wav.

Cite this entry: “zouave.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/zouave. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.