colonel

See also: Colonel

English

Alternative forms

• coronel (obsolete)
• COL., Col. (abbreviation)

Etymology

First attested 1548, 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 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 *kel- (“to rise, be elevated, be prominent”). See hill, holm.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɜːnəl/
• IPA^(key): /ˈkɝnəl/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)nəl

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: kernel

The anomalous pronunciation may be a holdover of the pronunciation of the earlier, obsolete form coronel.

Noun

colonel (plural colonels)

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).
   • Template:RQ:Frgsn Zlnstn

     The colonel and his sponsor made a queer contrast: Greystone long and stringy, with a face that seemed as if a cold wind was eternally playing on it. […] But there was not a more lascivious reprobate and gourmand in all London than this same Greystone.

Usage notes

• When used as a title, it is always capitalized.

Related terms

• bird colonel

Translations

commissioned office in the armed services

• Afrikaans: kolonel
• Albanian: kolonel (sq) m
• Arabic: عَقِيد (ar) m (ʕaqīd), زَعِيم m (zaʕīm), زَعِيم رُتْبَة m (zaʕīm rutba), كُولُونِيل m (kulunīl)
• Armenian: գնդապետ (hy) (gndapet)
• Belarusian: палко́ўнік m (palkóŭnik)
• Bengali: কর্নেল (kornel)
• Bulgarian: полко́вник m (polkóvnik)
• Catalan: coronel (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 上校 (zh) (shàngxiào)

• Czech: plukovník (cs) m
• Danish: oberst c
• Dutch: kolonel (nl) m
• Esperanto: kolonelo (eo)
• Estonian: kolonel
• Finnish: eversti (fi)
• French: colonel (fr) m
• Galician: coronel m
• Georgian: პოლკოვნიკი (ṗolḳovniḳi)
• German: Oberst (de) m
• Greek: συνταγματάρχης (el) m or f (syntagmatárchis) (army), σμήναρχος (el) m or f (smínarchos) (airforce)
• Gujarati: કર્નલ (karnal)
• Haitian Creole: kolonèl
• Hindi: कर्नल (hi) m (karnal)
• Hungarian: ezredes (hu)
• Indonesian: kolonel (id)
• Italian: colonnello (it) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 大佐 (ja) (たいさ, taisa)
• Kannada: ಕರ್ನಲ್ (kn) (karnal)
• Korean: 대령 (ko) (daeryeong)
• Macedonian: полковник m (polkovnik)
• Malay: kolonel
• Maltese: kurunell
• Maori: kānara
• Marathi: कर्नल (karnal)
• Norman: coronel m
• Norwegian: oberst m
• Persian: سرهنگ (fa) (sarhang), کلنل (fa) (kolonel)
• Polish: pułkownik (pl) m
• Portuguese: coronel (pt) m
• Romanian: colonel (ro) m
• Russian: полко́вник (ru) m (polkóvnik)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пу̀ко̄внӣк m, пуковница f

  Roman: pùkōvnīk (sh) m, pukovnica f

• Slovak: plukovník m
• Slovene: polkovnik m, polkóvnica
• Spanish: coronel (es) m
• Swedish: överste (sv) c
• Telugu: కర్నల్ (karnal)
• Turkish: albay (tr)
• Ukrainian: полко́вник m (polkóvnyk)
• Vietnamese: đại tá
• Welsh: gyrnol

Verb

colonel (third-person singular simple present colonels, present participle coloneling or colonelling, simple past and past participle coloneled or colonelled)

1. (intransitive) To act as or like a colonel.

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French

Alternative forms

• colonnel, coronel, coronnel (obsolete)

Etymology

From Italian colonnello. Compare Middle French coronel, borrowed earlier from the same source. See English colonel for more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.lɔ.nɛl/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

colonel m (plural colonels, feminine colonelle)

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

Further reading

• “colonel”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Romanian

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French colonel, from Middle French coronel, which see.

Noun

colonel m (plural colonei)

1. colonel (military officer above lieutenant-colonel and below general-major)

Declension

Declension of colonel

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) colonel	colonelul	(niște) colonei	coloneii
genitive/dative	(unui) colonel	colonelului	(unor) colonei	coloneilor
vocative	colonelule		coloneilor

Etymology 2

Borrowed from German Kolonel.

Noun

colonel n (uncountable)

1. glyph (A letter in a type of font.)