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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

baton.

A staff or truncheon, used for various purposes.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈbætɒn/Received-Pronunciation/ˈbæt(ə)n/Received-Pronunciation/bəˈtɑn/US
  1. A staff or truncheon, used for various purposes.

  2. A ceremonial staff of a field marshal or a similar high-ranking military office.

  3. The stick of a conductor in musical performances.

    The conductor raised his baton and the orchestra fell silent.
  4. An object transferred by runners in a relay race.

    In the relay race, the runner dropped the baton.
  5. A rod twirled in a marching band's performance, in a gymnastic sport, or in juggling.

  6. A short stout club used primarily by policemen.

    US
    The police officer carried a baton for self-defense.
  7. A bend with the ends cut off, resembling a baton, typically borne sinister, and often used as a mark of cadency, initially for both legitimate and illegitimate children, but later chiefly for illegitimate children.

  8. A short vertical lightweight post, not set into the ground, used to separate wires in a fence.

  9. A batonnet, a long slice of a vegetable, thicker than a julienne.

  10. A short baguette.

Where this word comes from

From French bâton. Doublet of baston.

verb/ˈbætɒn/Received-Pronunciation/ˈbæt(ə)n/Received-Pronunciation/bəˈtɑn/US
  1. To strike with a baton.

    figuratively · transitive
    She passed the baton to her successor after retiring.
    accept/refuse/receive the baton
Where this word comes from

From French bâton. Doublet of baston.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.