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In the early era of firearms, cannons of lesser size such as the falconet were sometimes named for birds of prey. Following this pattern, Italians applied moschetto or moschetta, meaning "sparrow hawk," to a small-caliber piece of ordnance in the 16th century. Spaniards borrowed this word as mosquete, and the French as mosquet, but both applied it to a heavy shoulder firearm rather than a cannon; English musket was borrowed soon thereafter from French. The word musket was retained after the original matchlock firing mechanism was replaced by a wheel lock, and retained still after the wheel lock was replaced by the flintlock. As the practice of rifling firearms—incising the barrel with spiral grooves to improve the bullet's accuracy—became more common, the term musket gradually gave way to the newer word rifle in the 18th century.
Examples of musket in a Sentence
Reuters, NBC news, 26 Mar. 2026
D’Artagnan was killed by a musket ball to the throat in the siege of Maastricht in 1673, and excavators believe that a skeleton found in the city was his.
—Tom Chivers, semafor.com, 26 Mar. 2026
This physical evidence matches historical records that report that D’Artagnan, whose full name was Charles de Batz de Castelmore, died after being shot in the throat by a musket ball during the French siege of Maastricht in 1673.
—Jack Guy, CNN Money, 26 Mar. 2026
Ronald White of Milton, dressed in colonial attire, stood with reenactors firing replica muskets in the church’s graveyard following the service and said the anniversary carries personal meaning.
—ABC News, 17 Mar. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Musket.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/musket. Accessed 6 Apr. 2026.
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musket
noun
