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Phalanx vs Pike - What's the difference?

phalanx | pike |

As nouns the difference between phalanx and pike

is that phalanx is a large group of people, animals or things, compact or closely massed, or tightly knit and united in common purpose while pike is a very long thrusting spear used two-handed by infantry both for attacks on enemy foot soldiers and as a counter-measure against cavalry assaults. The pike is not intended to be thrown.

As proper nouns the difference between phalanx and pike

is that phalanx is the brand name of a radar-controlled rapid fire 20mm Gatling-type machine gun, the Phalanx CIWS (pronounced see-wiz), deployed on U.S. Navy ships as a last line of defense against antiship cruise missiles while Pike is {{surname|from=Middle English}} of multiple origins, including Middle English {{term|pike|lang=enm}}.

As a verb pike is

to attack, prod, or injure someone with a pike.

phalanx

English

(Phalanx bone) (wikipedia phalanx)

Noun

(en-noun)
  • a large group of people, animals or things, compact or closely massed, or tightly knit and united in common purpose.
  • * 2007 , The Guardian, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2073710,00.html]
  • There, the Paisleyites were being held back by another phalanx of soldiers and policemen.
  • * 2007 , The Guardian, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/freedom/Story/0,,2065311,00.html]
  • The Guardian today listed a phalanx of ministers who back the bill, including Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, Tony McNulty, the policing minister, Andy Burnham, the junior health minister, Ian Pearson, the climate change minister, John Healey, the financial secretary to the Treasury, and Keith Hill, parliamentary private secretary to Tony Blair
  • One of the bones of the finger or toe.
  • An ancient Greek and Macedonian military unit that consisted of several ranks and files (lines) of soldiers in close array with joined shields and long spears.
  • (historical sociology) A Fourierite utopian community; a phalanstery.
  • Synonyms

    * phalange

    Hyponyms

    * (bone of the finger) distal phalanx, intermediate phalanx, proximal phalanx

    pike

    English

    (wikipedia pike)

    Etymology 1

    (etyl) ultimately a variant form of pick, with meaning narrowed. Cognate with Dutch piek, dialectal German Peik, Norwegian pik. pique.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A very long thrusting spear used two-handed by infantry both for attacks on enemy foot soldiers and as a counter-measure against cavalry assaults. The pike is not intended to be thrown.
  • * 1790 , , Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile
  • Each had a small ax in the foreangle of his saddle, and a pike about fourteen feet long, the weapon with which he charged;
  • A sharp point, such as that of the weapon.
  • (Beaumont and Fletcher)
  • Any carnivorous freshwater fish of the genus Esox'', especially the northern pike, ''Esox lucius .
  • A turnpike.
  • (Charles Dickens)
  • A pointy extrusion at the toe of a shoe, found in old-fashioned footwear.
  • * 1861 , The comprehensive history of England Vol. 1
  • During the earlier part of this period, the long pike disappeared from the shoe, but in the later part it returned in greater longitude than ever.
  • * 1904 , George Nicholls, A History of the English Poor Law in Connection with the State of the Country and the Condition of the People
  • Thus the statute of , which forbade the fine gentlemen of those times, under the degree of a lord, to wear pikes upon their shoes or boots of more than two inches in length, was a law that savoured of oppression, because, however ridiculous the fashion might appear, the restraining of it by pecuniary penalties would serve no purpose of common utility.
  • (diving) A dive position with knees straight and a tight bend at the hips.
  • * 2000 , (JG Ballard), Super-Cannes , Fourth Estate 2011, p. 167:
  • She sprang into the air and jack-knifed into a clumsy pike before following her hands into the water.
  • * 2008 , , China wins first diving medal at Beijing Olympics Aug 10 2008 [http://www.tsn.ca/olympics/story/?id=245859&lid=sublink05&lpos=headlines_olympics]
  • Guo and Wu took a big lead after the second dive, a back dive in pike position, which the judges awarded three perfect tens for synchronization.
  • (obsolete, UK, dialect) A hayfork.
  • (Tusser)
  • (obsolete) A pick.
  • (Raymond)
    (Wright)
  • A large haycock.
  • (Halliwell)
    Synonyms
    * ''see: northern pike
    Derived terms
    * come down the pike * garpike * pikehead * pikestaff * pikeman

    Verb

    (pik)
  • To attack, prod, or injure someone with a pike.
  • To quit or back out of a promise.
  • Don't pike on me like you did last time!
  • * 2002 , Sylvia Lawson, How Simone De Beauvoir Died in Australia , page 151,
  • —But Camus piked out, said Carole. Sartre and that lot got pissed off with him, he stood off from the war, he wouldn?t oppose it.
  • * 2006 , Pip Wilson, Faces in the Street: Louisa and Henry Lawson and the Castlereagh Street Push , page 543,
  • Holman accepted the challenge while Norton ‘piked out’; nevertheless Holman won Cootamundra against a strong candidate.
  • * 2008 , Chris Pash, The Last Whale , Fremantle Press, Australia, page 36,
  • If they didn?t go ahead, it would look like they had piked , backed down.

    Derived terms

    * piker

    Etymology 2

    Perhaps a special use of Etymology 1, above; or from an early Scandinavian language, compare Norwegian .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A mountain peak or summit.
  • *, II.ii.3:
  • *:The pike of Teneriffe how high it is? 70 miles? or 50, as Patricius holds? or 9, as Snellius demonstrates in his Eratosthenes ?
  • References

    Anagrams

    * ---- ==Norwegian Bokmål==

    Noun

    (nb-noun-c)
  • girl
  • Usage notes

    Jente'' is the standard appellation for girl in Norwegian, however, ''pike may also be used observing its somewhat conservative tint.

    Synonyms

    * (l)

    Derived terms

    * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l)

    References

    *