colonel

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

First attested 1548, from Middle French coronel, from Italian colonnello (“the officer of a small company of soldiers (column) that marched at the head of a regiment”), from compagna colonnella (“little column company”), from Latin columna (“pillar”)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈkɜːnəl/, SAMPA: /"k3:n@l/
• (US) IPA: /ˈkɝnəl/, SAMPA: /"k3`n@l/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)nəl

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: kernel

Noun

colonel (plural colonels)

1. A commissioned officer in the army, air force, or marine corps. In U.S. military, it ranks above a lieutenant colonel and below a brigadier general.

Usage notes

When used as a title, it is always capitalized.

Example: Colonel John Doe.

The rank corresponds to pay grade O-6. Abbreviations: Col. and COL.

Related terms

• bird colonel

Translations

commissioned office in the armed services

Afrikaans: kolonel (af) Arabic:عقيد (ar) (‎3àqiid) m., زعيم (ar) (za3iim) m., زعيم رتبة (ar) (za3iim rútya) m., كولونيل (ar) (kuluniil) m. Armenian: գնդապետ (hy) (gndapet) Bosnian: pukovnik (bs) m. Bulgarian: полковник (bg) m. Catalan: coronel (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 上校 (cmn) (shàngxiào) Croatian: pukovnik (hr) m., pukovnica (hr) f. Czech: plukovník (cs) m. Danish: oberst (da) c. Dutch: kolonel (nl) m. Finnish: eversti (fi), everstistä (fi) French: colonel (fr) m. Georgian: პოლკოვნიკი (ka) (polkovniki) German: Oberst (de) m. Greek: συνταγματάρχης (el) (syntagmatárchis) m. and f. Haitian Creole: kolonèl Hindi: कर्नल (hi) (karnala) Hungarian: ezredes (hu)

Indonesian: kolonel (id) Italian: colonnello m. Japanese: 大佐 (ja) (たいさ, taisa) Korean: 대령 (ko) (daelyeong) Macedonian: полковник (mk) (pólkovnik) m. Maltese: kurunell (mt) Norwegian: oberst (no) m. Persian: سرهنگ (fa) (sarhang) Polish: pułkownik (pl) m. Portuguese: coronel (pt) m. Romanian: colonel m. Russian: полковник (ru) (polkóvnik) m. Serbian: Cyrillic: пуковник m. Roman: pukovnik m. Slovene: polkovnik m., polkóvnica (sl) Spanish: coronel (es) m. Swedish: överste c. Turkish: albay (tr) Welsh: gyrnol (cy)

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French

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

colonel m. (plural colonels)

1. colonel
2. an ice cream dessert consisting of lemon sherbet and vodka.

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Romanian

Etymology 1

from French colonel

Noun

colonel m. (plural colonei)

1. a colonel, a military officer above lieutenant-colonel and below general-major.

Etymology 2

from German Kolonel

Noun

colonel n.

1. a letter in a type of font.