Meaning & use
partizan
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Meanings
nouncountablearchaicspecialist
A spear with a long wooden shaft and a broad blade with two small projections at its base, carried by infantry and ceremonial guards in earlier centuries.
Grammar: Usually a plural-capable object noun: one partizan, a row of partizans.
Patterns
- carry a partizan
- a guard armed with a partizan
The museum keeps a rack of partizans that once stood beside a duke's throne.
Each guard in the painting holds a tall partizan with a decorated blade.
Historians still argue about how effective a partizan was against a charging horseman.
nouncountablerare
An alternative spelling of partisan, meaning a person who firmly supports a party, cause, or leader, often without weighing the other side.
Grammar: Much rarer than 'partisan'; most editors would change it to the standard spelling.
Patterns
- a partizan of something
He was a loyal partizan of the old regime and defended it at every meeting.
Older newspapers sometimes printed the word as partizan, though the modern spelling is partisan.
Party partizans filled the hall long before the speeches began.
Word forms
| plural | partizans |
|---|
Common combinations
- a ceremonial partizan
- The doorkeeper bore a ceremonial partizan, polished for the royal visit.
- wield a partizan
- In the reenactment, the sergeant wielded a partizan with surprising ease.
- partizan blade
- The partizan blade was etched with the owner's crest.
- partizan and halberd
- The armory display paired a partizan and halberd on the same wall.
Synonyms and how they differ
- halberd
- A halberd has an axe blade as well as a spike, so it hacks and hooks, while a partizan is chiefly a thrusting spear.
- pike
- A pike is a much longer, plainer spear used in massed ranks, whereas a partizan is shorter and often decorated.
- spear
- Spear is the general word for any pointed shaft weapon; partizan names one specific broad-bladed type.
Word family
- partisan noun
- a committed supporter of a side or cause; the standard spelling of the second sense
- partisan adjective
- showing strong, one-sided support for a group or cause
- partisanship noun
- strong loyalty to one side, often at the expense of fairness
Commonly confused: partizan or partisan?
partizan vs partisan
Partisan is the usual spelling for a loyal supporter or for one-sided behaviour, and it is also the guerrilla fighter sense. Partizan is the spelling you meet when the word means the spear.
Practice
The guards at the castle gate each carried a tall ______ with a broad, leaf-shaped blade.
Choose one answer.
A partizan is a long-shafted spear with a broad blade. 'Partisan' sounds similar but means a supporter, so it does not fit a weapon, and the other two words are not weapons.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “partizan”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.