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Glite Dictionary
small arm

small arm

20 4.9
A gun like a handgun or rifle that a person can carry
  • noun
  • /smɔl ɑrm/
  • Specialized
translation icon : arma ligera
  • The soldiers carried their small arms as they prepared for the mission.
  • small arms and light weapons
  • small arms ammunition
  • small arms fire

What happened was is we had small arms fire that night.

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Examples

  • Small arms, machine guns and a couple of trench mortars.

    South Sea Woman (1953)

  • Ukraine alone claims to have several million small arms in storehouses.

    Academic text (2011)

  • We need guns and small arms.

    USS Seaviper (2012)

  • We only have small arms.

    Sahara (2005)

  • There is small arms fire coming from the roof.

    A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)

  • Numerous small arms and rocket attacks continue to be reported.

    The Machine (2013)

  • His inclusion of guns and small arms is curious.

    Academic text (2009)

  • We've got multiple small arms.

    13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016)

  • But they were replaced by the distant crackle of small arms fire and the far thunder of grenades.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • At its peak production, the Macon Arsenal produced 10,000 rounds of small arms ammunition and 125 artillery shells per day.

    Academic text (2007)

Synonyms

piece
vssmall arm
  • Slang
294 9.9

A gun, especially a handgun

is the neutral standard wording for any portable firearm
firearm
vssmall arm
258 4.5

A gun a person can hold and fire by hand

is slightly broader, also including shoulder-fired weapons like shotguns
handgun
vssmall arm
187 4.6

A small gun that you hold and fire with one hand

is broader, covering weapons that may need two hands or a shoulder
sidearm
vssmall arm
20 4.6

A small gun carried at a person's side for protection

is broader, used for many purposes beyond being carried at the side
light arm
vssmall arm
  • Specialized
5.8

A gun like a rifle or pistol carried and used by one person

is a portable term stressing individual carriage across several weapon types

How Powerful

ballistic missile
  • Specialized
45 5.1
anti-submarine rocket
  • Specialized
7.3
torpedo
  • Specialized
127 6.4
naval gun
  • Specialized
6.8
small arm
  • Specialized
20 4.9

Surface Forms

small arm singular
small arms plural

Morphology

small + arm

The components 'small' (limited in size) plus 'arm' (weapon) yield a fairly direct sense of a 'small weapon', so a learner who interprets 'arm' in the weapon sense can infer the general idea. However, the phrase is less common in the singular (more often 'small arms') and 'arm' is also primarily known as a body part, so the exact specialised sense 'portable firearm' and the plurality/usage nuances are not fully predictable for a B1 learner.

Etymology

The noun small arm may come from old military use, where arm meant 'weapon' and small showed it could be 'carried' by one person. Picture a soldier with a gun at his side, and that image explains why small arm means a gun a person can carry today.