squadron

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Italian squadrone. See squad.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈskwɒd.ɹən/
  • (file)

Noun[edit]

squadron (plural squadrons) (abbreviated to: sqn)

  1. (obsolete) A body of troops drawn up in a square.
  2. (military, historical, army) A body of cavalry comprising two companies or troops, averaging from one hundred and twenty to two hundred soldiers.
  3. (military) A body of infantrymen made up of several platoons, averaging from eighty to one hundred and fifty men, and led by a captain or a major.
  4. (military, navy) A detachment of vessels employed on any particular service or station, under the command of the senior officer
    the North Atlantic Squadron
  5. (military, air force) A tactical air force unit; consists of at least two flights; multiple squadrons make up a group or wing (depending on particular air force).
  6. (US, military, U.S. Space Force) A spaceforce unit; multiple squadrons make up an operations delta or a support garrison.

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb[edit]

squadron (third-person singular simple present squadrons, present participle squadroning, simple past and past participle squadroned)

  1. (transitive) To divide up into squadrons.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “squadron”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)