Ranged weapon

A ranged weapon is any weapon which can attack a monster not adjacent to you. Technically, any item in the game could be a ranged weapon, if thrown. However, the source code officially designates some weapons as ranged:

• dwarvish spear
• silver spear
• elven spear
• spear
• orcish spear
• javelin
• shuriken
• ya
• silver arrow
• elven arrow
• arrow
• orcish arrow
• crossbow bolt
• silver dagger
• elven dagger
• dagger
• orcish dagger
• knife
• flint stone
• rock
• loadstone
• luckstone
• dart
• boomerang
• cream pie

This is the order in which monsters will try to use a ranged weapon, unless a polearm is available, in which case it will try to apply that first.

Colloquially, any item which can be used to damage a monster at a distance could be considered a ranged weapon. This includes items like attack wands, hurled potions and spells.