Halberd

Definition: Halberd

Halberd

Noun

1. A pike fitted with an ax head.

Date "halberd" was first used: 1495. (references)

Synonyms within Context: Halberd

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Arms	Sword, saber, broadsword, cutlass, falchion, scimitar, cimeter, brand, whinyard, bilbo, glaive, glave, rapier, skean, Toledo, Ferrara, tuck, claymore, adaga, baselard, Lochaber ax, skean dhu, creese, kris, dagger, dirk, banger, poniard, stiletto, stylet, dudgeon, bayonet; sword-bayonet, sword-stick; side arms, foil, blade, steel; ax, bill; pole-ax, battle-ax; gisarme, halberd, partisan, tomahawk, bowie knife; ataghan, attaghan, yataghan; yatacban; assagai, assegai; good sword, trusty sword, naked sword; cold steel.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Specialty Definition: Halberd

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Swedish halberds from 16th century

A halberd is a pole weapon that came to prominent use during the 14th and 15th centuries. It consists of an axe head topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft. The back of the axe head was often fitted with a hook for grappling mounted combatants.

The halberd is still the ceremonial weapon of the Swiss Guard in the Vatican.

the following needs merging

Halberds were two-handed axe-like weapons consisting of four parts:

a handle roughly 7 or 8 foot (1 m 70)long
an axe blade
a point
often a hook or thorn on the back side of the axe blade

This made the halberd cheap to produce and very versatile in battle. Its length allowed to deflect spears and pikes, its point allowed to keep sword-wielding opponents at distance, and the hook would be used to draw armored opponents to the ground. The axe blade, obviously, was for cutting into unarmed opponents and horses.

Halberds were the primary weapons of the early Swiss armies in the 14th century. Later on, the Swiss added pikes to better repel knight attacks, with halberds used for medium distances and short swords ("Katzbalgers") for close up.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Halberd."

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Crosswords: Halberd

English words defined with "halberd": Brown bill ♦ Glair ♦ halberdier, Hastated ♦ Sparth, Spontoon. (references)

Specialty definitions using "halberd": Symbols of Saints. (references)

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Image Slideshow: Halberd

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Usage Frequency: Halberd

"Halberd" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 88.46% of the time. "Halberd" is used about 26 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	88.46%	23	72,767
Noun (proper)	11.54%	3	202,518
Total	100.00%	26	N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expression: Halberd

Hyphenated Usage
	Beginning with "halberd": Halberd-shaped.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Halberd

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day
halberd	42
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Halberd

Language		Translations for "halberd"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Arabic		‏المطرد سلاح قديم. (various references)

Bulgarian		алебарда (bill, partisan, pole-ax). (various references)

Czech		halapartna (pole axe, poleaxe). (various references)

Danish		hellebard. (various references)

Dutch		hellebaard. (various references)

Esperanto		halebardo. (various references)

French		hallebarde. (various references)

German		hellebarde. (various references)

Greek		δόρυ με πελέκι, δόρυ με πλατειά αιχμή, δόρυ δόλιχο. (various references)

Hungarian		alabárd (bill, halbert). (various references)

Italian		alabarda. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		矛 (arms). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		ハルベルト , なぎなた (long sword or halberd), ほ�" (arms). (various references)

Pig Latin		alberdhay.(various references)

Portuguese		alabarda (partisan, pole-ax). (various references)

Romanian		halebardã, secure (ax, axe, Halbert, hatchet), baltag (ax, axe, hatchet). (various references)

Russian		алебарда (battle axe, bill, billhook). (various references)

Scottish		tailebart. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		helebarda, halebarda (bill). (various references)

Spanish		alabarda (poleax, poleaxe). (various references)

Swedish		hillebard. (various references)

Thai		ง้าว. (various references)

Turkish		teber, baltalı kargı (partisan). (various references)

Ukranian		алебарда (battle axe, poleax, poleaxe). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Halberd

Language	Period	Translations
Middle High German	1100-1500	halmbarte. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Halberd

Derivations
	Words beginning with "halberd": halberds. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Halberd" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Ahlburg, Alberdi, Dalibard, Habad, haber, Habere, Halbarad, halber, Halberg, halbred, Halbury, Hallberg, halperd, Halpert, Halverd, Heayberd, Heyberd, Hilbery, Holbury, Huberd, Hultberg, Malzeard, Shoolbred. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Anagrams: Halberd

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-b-d-e-h-l-r"
	-1 letter: balder, blared, herald, herbal.
	-2 letters: abler, alder, ardeb, baled, baler, barde, bared, beard, blade, blare, blear, bread, debar, haled, haler, hared, heard, lader, rehab.
	-3 letters: abed, able, bade, bald, bale, bard, bare, bead, bear, blae, blah, bled, brad, brae, bred, dahl, dale, darb, dare, deal, dear, dhal, drab, earl, hade, haed, hale, hard, hare, harl, head, heal, hear, held, herb, herd, herl, lade, lard, lead, lear, lehr, rale, read, real, rhea.
	-4 letters: alb, ale, arb, are, bad, bah, bal, bar, bed, bel, bra, dab, dah, dal, deb, del, ear, edh, eld, era, had, hae, her, lab, lad, lar, lea, led, rad, rah, reb, red.
	-5 letters: ab, ad, ae, ah, al, ar, ba, be, de, ed, eh, el, er, ha, he, la, re.
	Words containing the letters "a-b-d-e-h-l-r"
	+1 letter: halberds.
	+2 letters: blathered, handlebar.
	+3 letters: balderdash, barrelhead, blandisher, handlebars, herbicidal.
	+4 letters: bachelordom, barrelheads, blackhander, blandishers, charbroiled, rhabdocoele.
	+5 letters: bachelordoms, bachelorhood, balderdashes, bigheartedly, blackhanders, breechloader, childbearing, decipherable, dishonorable, doubleheader, hardscrabble, herbicidally, hydrolyzable, overbleached, rehydratable, rhabdocoeles, rhombohedral, shuffleboard, withdrawable.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.