Other forms: ammunitions
Ammunition is the bullets and shells a weapon fires. Run out of ammunition, live ammunition, ammunition store.
It is uncountable, so you have rounds of ammunition rather than ammunitions. Figuratively it means material for an argument — giving your opponents ammunition. The word came from a French mishearing: la munition was heard as l'amunition, and the a stuck.
1nounammunitionThe bullets and shells a weapon fires.
“The soldiers ran out of ammunition and had to retreat.”
2nounmaterialMaterial for an argument.
“His rude comments gave his opponents plenty of ammunition during the election.”
ammunition is supplies for weapons.
French amunition arose from mishearing la munition as l'amunition. Munition and munitions come from the same Latin word for fortifying.
French
amunition
Latin
mūnitiō
Middle French
amunition
English, today
ammunition
Borrowed from Middle French amunition, from munition, from Latin mūnitiō. From older French amunition, la munition as l'amunition. Ultimately from Latin -; see munition for more.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA