colonel
Forms
- Plural
- colonels
- present (v1)
- colonel
- 3rd person singular
- colonels
Definitions
1.A commissioned officer in an armed military organization, typically the highest rank before flag officer ranks (generals). It is generally found in armies, air forces or naval infantry (marines).
2.A form of address for an auctioneer, from the American Civil War practice of commanding officers organizing the public sale of seized goods.
3.The military officer title.
- Consequently the necessity for the reorganization of the Guard, during the ten months’ absence of yourself and Colonels Smith and Banks, could not have been averted under our present Military Code.
4.An honorary civilian title bestowed by some southern US states, most commonly Kentucky; notably Colonel Sanders of KFC.
1.To act as or like a colonel.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #3800
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Uncommon
- General reading & writing
- Rare
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
First attested in the 1540s, from Middle French coronnel, from Old Italian colonnello (“the officer of a small company of soldiers (column) that marched at the head of a regiment”), from compagnia colonnella (“little column company”), from Latin columna (“pillar”), originally a collateral form of columen, contraction culmen (“a pillar, top, crown, summit”), o-grade form from a Proto-Indo-European *kelH- (“to rise, be elevated, be prominent”). See hill, holm.