What does enfilading mean?
Enfilading describes a devastating form of military firepower: shooting at a target along its length rather than across it. When soldiers in a straight trench or a column marching down a road come under enfilading fire, every shot fired travels parallel to their formation, so each round has the chance to strike multiple men in succession. This makes it far deadlier than frontal fire and explains why well-designed trenches were dug in zigzag patterns — to deny an attacker any clear line for enfilade. Derived from French, the word belongs chiefly to the vocabulary of military history and tactics, appearing in accounts of sieges, trench warfare, and fortification design. Figurative uses are rare, so encountering the word almost always signals a discussion of battlefields, artillery positions, or the geometry of defensive works. Its counterpart concept, defilade, describes protection against exactly this kind of lengthwise fire.
verbTo rake a position, line of troops, or trench with gunfire along its length, so that shots travel down the long axis of the target rather than across it.
- To subject a target to gunfire directed along its length, raking it from end to end (military use).
"The machine-gun nest was positioned to enfilading effect, sweeping the entire length of the enemy trench."
"Enemy artillery had been sited on the ridge, enfilading the entire column as it wound through the valley below."
"The fortress's guns were angled to catch attackers in an enfilading crossfire along the causeway."
In military terms, enfilading fire is so feared because a single gun firing down a trench can hit everyone in it — which is why trenches were built zigzag rather than straight.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of enfilading
Enfilading derives from the French verb enfiler, meaning literally 'to thread on a string,' from fil ('thread'), which traces back to Latin filum ('thread'). The military sense arose because bullets fired down a line pass through it like beads threaded onto a string. It entered English in the late 17th century alongside other fortification terminology borrowed from French military engineering, and shares its root with words such as file, filament, and profile.
Related word forms
How enfilading is actually used
Almost exclusively used in military and historical contexts; rare outside discussions of warfare, fortifications, and military history. The noun 'enfilade' is somewhat more common than the verb.
Easily confused with enfilading
Defilade means the opposite arrangement — protecting troops by placing them behind terrain that shields them from enfilading fire along a line of approach.