How to say "artillery" in Japanese

• 砲ほうCommon
  noun, noun (suffix)The gun or cannon itself: 'artillery' as weapons and ordnance. Use it when the sense is the hardware — the guns — rather than the gunners or the branch of service.
• 大砲たいほうCommon
  nounA large gun or cannon: 'artillery' as the weapon itself. Use it when you mean the big gun as a physical object rather than the service arm or its soldiers.
  大砲たいほうが偶然ぐうぜん発射はっしゃしてしまった。↗

  The cannon went off by accident.
• 砲兵ほうへいCommon
  nounArtillery as a branch of the military, or a gunner — the people and units, not the weapons. Use it when 'artillery' means the service arm or an artilleryman.
  この仕事しごとはその砲兵ほうへい中隊ちゅうたいのだれにもできない。↗

  This job is not for any person in the battery.
• 火砲かほうCommon
  nounA large gun or cannon: the weapons sense of 'artillery', much as with 大砲. The two are close equivalents, and either may serve when the meaning is the guns themselves.

For artillery as weapons, choose 大砲 for a large gun or cannon, 砲 for the guns as ordnance, or 火砲, a close synonym of 大砲; for artillery as the military branch or its gunners, choose 砲兵.

Usage comparisons are AI-assisted and cross-checked by multiple models; for study reference only

• 砲ほうgun
• 大砲たいほう(large) gun
• 砲兵ほうへいartillery
• 火砲かほう(large) gun
• 砲熕ほうこうartillery
• 砲術ほうじゅつgunnery