baton

The word “baton” means a short stick used by a police officer as a weapon or by a conductor to lead an orchestra. In plain terms, a stick used for conducting music, for relay races, or as a police weapon.

“Baton” is pronounced BA-ton (/bəˈtɑn/ in IPA).

Here is “baton” used in a sentence: “The conductor raised his baton and the orchestra fell silent.”

Words with a similar meaning to “baton” include wand, rod, bat and club.

“Baton” is a noun.

The word “baton” comes from French. From French bâton, "stick.".

“Baton” is an uncommon word in modern English.

“Baton” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a short stick used by a police officer as a weapon or by a conductor to lead an orchestra.

A baton and a truncheon both refer to a short stick carried by police as a weapon, and the terms are largely interchangeable in British English, with "truncheon" being the more traditional word. "Baton" is now more widely used internationally and also covers non-police contexts like conducting.

A conductor's baton is a slender stick used to direct an orchestra's tempo and expression, while a relay baton is a short rod physically passed from one runner to the next during a race. Both share the name "baton" because they're short handheld rods, but their uses are entirely different.

"Pass the baton" is a figurative expression meaning to hand over responsibility, leadership, or a task to someone else, drawn from the literal handoff in a relay race. It's commonly used outside of sports to describe transitions in roles or generations.