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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

coxswain.

In a ship's boat, the helmsman given charge of the boat's crew.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈkɒk.s(ə)n/Received-Pronunciation/ˈkɒkˌsweɪn//ˈkɑk.s(ə)n/General-American
  1. In a ship's boat, the helmsman given charge of the boat's crew.

  2. The member of a crew who steers the shell and coordinates the power and rhythm of the rowers.

  3. The second or third mate of a vessel, in charge of the master's barge.

    archaic
  4. A rank or position.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English cokswain, equivalent to cock (“small boat”) + swain (“boy, servant”).

verb/ˈkɒk.s(ə)n/Received-Pronunciation/ˈkɒkˌsweɪn//ˈkɑk.s(ə)n/General-American
  1. To act as coxswain for.

    intransitive · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English cokswain, equivalent to cock (“small boat”) + swain (“boy, servant”).

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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.