Now updated for CSW19. New words, if any, and new inflections of existing words, are shown in red.
| abatis abattis | a means of defense formed by felled trees, the ends of whose branches are sharpened and directed outwards, or against the enemy. |
| abri | a bomb shelter. |
| agger | an artificial mound or elevation for military use. |
| alcazar | a fortress; also, a royal palace. [Arabic al-kasr, the castle]. |
| atalaya | a watchtower. |
| barbette | an earthen terrace inside the parapet of a rampart. |
| barricade | a temporary defensive barrier; (verb) to block, to enclose with a barricade. |
| barricado | a barricade > BARRICADOS; (verb) to barricade > BARRICADOES. |
| bastile bastille | a tower or an elevated work, used for the defense, or in the siege, of a fortified place. The Bastille was the French prison-cum-fortress stormed by the mob in the French Revolution. |
| bastle | a fortified house with vaulted ground floor. Cf. BASTILLE. |
| bawn | in Ireland, the fortification round a house, an enclosure for cattle. [Ir. babhun, enclosure]. |
| blindage | a cover or protection for an advanced trench or approach, formed of FASCINES and earth supported by a framework. |
| blockhouse | a wooden or concrete fortification with ports or loopholes for defensive fire, observation, etc. |
| boma | in Africa, a thorn enclosure. |
| boyau | a communication trench > BOYAUX. [Fr. boyau, bowel]. |
| brattice brattish brettice bretasche bretesse | a wooden tower used in mediaeval siege operations. The first three variants can also be sued as verbs: to provide with a brattice. |
| brisure | a part of a parapet breaking from the general direction. |
| broch brogh brough | a dry-built circular tower of the late Iron Age. BROCH can also be used as a verb: to broach. |
| bulwark | a fortification or rampart; (verb) to provide with bulwarks; to serve as a bulwark to. |
| burg | a fortified town. |
| caponier caponiere | a work made across or in the ditch, to protect it from the enemy, or to serve as a covered passageway. |
| casbah kasbah | a castle or fortress in a North African town. |
| casemate | a bombproof chamber or armored compartment. |
| casemated | furnished with, protected by, or built like, a CASEMATE. |
| castellum | a small Roman fort, a mile-castle > CASTELLA or CASTELLUMS. |
| castle | a fortified house or fortress; (verb) to change king and rook places at chess. |
| circumvallate | to surround with a rampart or fortification. |
| citadel | a fortress in or near a city. |
| contravallation | a fortification built around besieged place. |
| counterscarp | a narrow earth band on the outer wall of a defensive ditch. |
| coupure | a passage cut through a glacis to facilitate sallies by the besieged. |
| crannog crannoge | one of the stockaded islands in Scotland and Ireland which in ancient times were numerous in the lakes of both countries. [Gaelic crann, a tree]. |
| cremaillere | a zigzag line of fortification. |
| cunette | an fortifications, a trench sunk along the middle of a dry ditch or moat, serving as a drain, a CUVETTE. |
| cursal | relating to a CURSUS, an elongated prehistoric earthwork. |
| cursus | an elongated prehistoric earthwork. Pl. CURSI. |
| defenced defensed | fortified. |
| defilade | to plan a fortification so as to protect it or those in it from raking crossfire. |
| drawbridge | a bridge or section of a bridge hinged at one end for drawing up and lowering to prevent or permit passage across it or to open or close a channel spanned by it. |
| earthwork | a fortification of earth; an embankment. |
| eboulement | the falling in of the wall of a fortification; a landslip. |
| embank | to protect by a bank of earth or stone. |
| escalade | to scale the walls of a fortress by ladders. Also ESCALADO. |
| escalader | one who escalades, scales fortress walls by means of ladders. |
| escalado | the scaling of walls of a fortress by ladders. Pl. ESCALADOES. Also ESCALADE. |
| estacade | a dike of stakes in a river against an enemy. |
| fascine | a bundle of brushwood used to fill ditches. |
| fort | a small fortress; (verb) to fortify. |
| fortifier | something that fortifies. |
| fortify | to add strength to; to strengthen. |
| fortilage | fortress, stronghold. |
| fortlet | a little fort. |
| fortress | to strengthen with a fortress. |
| foss fosse | a ditch or moat. |
| fossed | having a FOSS, a ditch or moat. |
| fraise | a kind of palisade; (verb) to fence with such a palisade. |
| gabion | a wicker or wire basket of earth or rock. |
| gabionade gabionnade | a traverse made with gabions between guns or on their flanks, protecting them from enfilading fire. |
| gabionage | the part of a fortification built of GABIONS. |
| gabioned | furnished with GABIONS, wicker or wire baskets of earth or rock. |
| gazon gazoon | one of the pieces of sod used to line or cover parapets and the faces of earthworks. |
| glacis | a gentle slope in fortification. |
| gunhouse | a protective shelter for a gun and gunner. |
| herisson | a pivoted beam with iron spikes, protecting wall, passage, etc. [Fr. herisson, hedghog]. |
| hillfort | a fort built on a hill. |
| impregnable | that cannot be taken by attack. [Nothing to do with 'pregnant', but derives from the verb 'prendre', to take, capture, ultimately from L. 'prehendere', to seize]. |
| kasbah | see CASBAH. |
| keep | the innermost and strongest part of a castle. |
| kremlin | a Russian citadel. |
| laager | a defensive ring of ox-wagons; (verb) to arrange wagons in such a ring. |
| laer | = LAAGER, a camp; (verb) to make camp. |
| leaguer | the camp of a besieging army; a camp in general; (verb) to besiege. |
| limes | an ancient Roman fortified boundary. Pl. LIMITES. |
| martello | a circular fort for coastal defence. [Fr. Cape Mortella in Corsica, where one resisted for some time a British cannonade in 1794]. |
| mirador | a belvedere or watchtower. [Sp. mirar, to look, observe]. |
| moat | to surround with a moat. |
| motte | an artificial mound upon which a castle is built. |
| munify | to fortify. |
| munite | to fortify, strengthen. |
| nuraghe | a broch-like Sardinian round tower, probably of the Bronze Age. [Sardinian dialect]. Pl. NURAGHI. Also NURHAG. |
| nuraghic | relating to NURAGHI, Sardinian round towers. |
| nurhag | a broch-like Sardinian round tower, probably of the Bronze Age. [Sardinian dialect]. Also NURAGHE. |
| obsidional obsidionary | of or relating to a siege. |
| orgue | a row of stakes let down like a portcullis. |
| orillion | a semicircular projection on a bastion to protect flanks. |
| pa pah | a hill fort. |
| palisade | a fence of stakes used for defensive purposes; (verb) to equip with a palisade. Also PALISADO. |
| palisado | a fence of stakes used for defensive purposes; (verb) to palisade with a fence of stakes. Pl. PALISADOES. Also PALISADE. |
| parados | an earthworks defending against a rear attack. [Fr. parados from L. parare, to prepare + dorsum, back]. Pl. PARADOSES. |
| parapet | a bank built to provide protection from the enemy's observation and fire; esp. one on top of a wall or rampart, or in front of a trench. |
| parapeted | having a PARAPET. |
| piend | a salient angle. |
| poliorcetic | relating to siegecraft. |
| poliorcetics | the science of siegecraft. |
| pontlevis | a drawbridge. |
| portcullis | a grating of iron or of timbers pointed with iron, hung over the gateway of a fortress, to be let down to prevent the entrance of an enemy. |
| presidio | a place of defense; a fortress; a garrison. |
| rampart | to equip with ramparts. |
| rampire | a rampart. |
| rampired | having RAMPIRES, ramparts. |
| rath | a prehistoric hill fort; (adj.) quick, ready > RATHER, RATHEST. |
| redan | a field fortification with two parapets meeting at an angle. |
| redoubt | a rough and temporary fortification; (arch.) to fear. |
| reduit | a keep or stronghold into which a garrison may retire if the outworks are taken. |
| refortify | to fortify anew. |
| remblai | earth or materials made into a bank after having been excavated. |
| sallyport | a gateway or opening for making a sally from a fortified place. |
| sanga sangar sanger sungar | a temporary fortification. |
| scalade scalado | an ESCALADE, the scaling of walls of a fortress by ladders. |
| scarcement | an offset where a wall or bank of earth, etc., retreats, leaving a shelf or footing. |
| schanse schantze schanze | a heap of stones used as protection against rifle-fire. |
| sconce | a small protective fortification or earthwork; (verb) to entrench, to screen. |
| shothole | a hole made by a shot, or in a leaf by a boring insect; a hole in a wall for shooting from. |
| stacket | a stockade. |
| stockade | a barrier of stakes; (verb) to surround with a stockade. |
| sungar | see SANGA. |
| tenail tenaille | an outwork in a main fortification ditch. |
| tenaillon | an outwork to strengthen the side of a small ravelin. |
| terreplein | a horizontal platform behind a parapet where heavy guns are mounted. |
| testudo | a wheeled shelter used in assaults for protection from above attacks. [L. testudo, tortoise]. Pl. TESTUDOS or TESTUDINES. |
| tower | a tall building, standing alone or forming part of another, e.g. a church; a fortress, castle, with or consisting of a tower. |
| towerlike | like a tower. |
| towery | having towers; adorned or defended by towers > TOWERIER, TOWERIEST. |
| vallate | having a raised rim or rampart. |
| vallation | the building of a VALLUM or rampart. |
| vallum | a rampart; a wall of earth thrown up from a ditch. Pl. VALLUMS. |
| zareeba zariba zereba zeriba | an improvised stockade, esp. one made of thorn bushes, etc. |