Fusillade vs fuselage

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Grammarist

Fusillade and fuselage are two words that are spelled and pronounced similarly, but have very different meanings. We will examine the definitions of the words fusillade and fuselage, where these terms came from and some examples of their use in sentences.

A fusillade is a succession of shots fired in quick succession or simultaneously. The word fusillade may also be used metaphorically, as in a fusillade of criticism. Fusillade may be used a noun or a verb, related terms are fusillades, fusilladed, fusillading. The word fusillade is derived from the French word fusillade, meaning to shoot, first used in the English language at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

A fuselage is the body of an airplane or rocket, most often cylindrically shaped. The wings, engines and tail assembly of an airplane are not parts of the fuselage. The word fuselage is also derived from French, from the Old French word fuselé which means shaped like a spindle.

Examples

“Then they marched to the gates of Crowland Abbey to be met by a fusillade of musket fire from the Abbey tower.” (The Spalding Guardian)

Mr. Trump’s latest weekend Twitter fusillade came the morning after Mr. McCain surprised the president and his top aides by abruptly announcing that he could not “in good conscience” support the health care proposal by Mr. Graham and Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, saying it was a partisan plan whose costs and impacts on the health care of millions of Americans were unknown. (The New York Times)

China will design and make the fuselage of the C929, while Russia will design the wings of the wide-body passenger aircraft, which is currently under development, said Commercial Aircraft Corp of China on Friday. (China Daily)