colonel

English

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• coronel (obsolete)

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”), originally a collateral form of columen, contraction culmen (“a pillar, top, crown, summit”), o-grade form from a Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“going around”)..

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈkɜːnəl/, X-SAMPA: /"k3:n@l/
• (US) IPA: /ˈkɝnəl/, X-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)
• Bulgarian: полковник (bg) (polkovnik) m
• Catalan: coronel (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 上校 (cmn) (shàngxiào)

• Czech: plukovník (cs) m
• Danish: oberst (da) c
• Dutch: kolonel (nl) m
• Esperanto: kolonelo (eo)
• 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 (it) m
• Japanese: 大佐 (ja) (たいさ, taisa)
• Jèrriais: coronel m
• Korean: 대령 (ko) (daelyeong)
• Macedonian: полковник (mk) (pólkovnik) m
• Malay: kolonel (ms)
• Maltese: kurunell (mt)
• Marathi: कर्नल (mr) (karnala)
• Norwegian: oberst (no) m
• Persian: سرهنگ (fa) (sarhang)
• Polish: pułkownik (pl) m
• Portuguese: coronel (pt) m
• Romanian: colonel (ro) m
• Russian: полковник (ru) (polkóvnik) m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пуковник (sh) m, пуковница (sh) f

  Roman: pukovnik (sh) m, pukovnica (sh) f

• Slovene: polkovnik (sl) m, polkóvnica (sl)
• Spanish: coronel (es) m
• Swedish: överste (sv) c
• Turkish: albay (tr)
• Welsh: gyrnol (cy)

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French

Etymology

From Italian colonnello

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kɔ.lɔ.nɛl/

• 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.