pickelhaube

P3I1C3K5E1L1H4A1U1B3E1
UK/ˈpɪk(ə)lhaʊbə/

noun

A spiked helmet worn by German troops, especially during the First World War.

OriginGerman Pickelhaube →
First used 19th c.Scrabble 24
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Meanings

nounpickelhaube (plural pickelhaubes or pickelhauben)

plural pickelhaubes · plural pickelhauben

  1. historicalA spiked helmet worn by German troops, especially during the First World War.First known use 19th c.

    Whereupon an outlandish production number breaks out in which the Marx Brothers play xylophone on the pickelhauben of the assembled soldiers[…].

    2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 299

Origin

  1. GermanPickelhaube
  2. Englishpickelhaube

Unadapted borrowing from German Pickelhaube.

More words from German

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Danish pikkelhue
  • pikkelhuehelmet
French casque à pointe
  • casque à pointehelmet
German Pickelhaube
  • Pickelhaubehelmet
Italian elmo chiodato
  • elmo chiodatohelmet
Russian пике́льхаубе, пикельхе́льм
  • пике́льхаубе (pikɛ́lʹxaubɛ)helmet
  • пикельхе́льм (pikelʹxɛ́lʹm)helmet
Swedish pickelhuva
  • pickelhuvahelmet
Cite this entry
APA

pickelhaube. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pickelhaube

MLA

“pickelhaube.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pickelhaube. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pickelhaube,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pickelhaube.

Source: pickelhaube on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.