army
Pluralarmies
- 1A large organized military force that fights on land, especially a country's permanent land forces as an institution.
The general led his army across the river before dawn.
The two armies clashed on the open plain.
UsageFor the institution, use the: join the army, serve in the army.
- 2A very large number of people, animals, or things, often working together toward one purpose.
An army of reporters gathered outside the courthouse.
Armies of fundraisers went door to door across the city.
UsageUsually an army of + a plural noun: an army of volunteers, armies of tourists.
Note
Figurative use turns the word into a measure of quantity: an army of accountants, armies of tourists, an army of online investors. It keeps a trace of the military picture: great numbers moving together toward one end. The same frame stretches to ants and locusts and, loosest of all, to any great crowd at all.
- 3The armed forces of a country considered as a whole, including land, sea, and air units.
The country's army includes naval and air units under one command.
In Vietnam, the navy and the air defense forces are both branches of the national army, which covers all of the country's armed services.
Note
Some states give the name army to every branch of their forces. The Yugoslav Army comprised a War Navy, Ground Forces and Air Force, and China's navy is formally the People's Liberation Army Navy. In such titles a navy sits inside an army, a contradiction under the land-force meaning. Check the official name before assuming army means ground troops.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Some countries use army for their armed forces as a whole. en.wikipedia.org
- The Yugoslav Army included ground, naval and air branches, including the War Navy. en.wikipedia.org
- China's navy is called the People's Liberation Army Navy and belongs to the People's Liberation Army. en.wikipedia.org
- 4A very large tactical formation within a military, typically made up of several divisions under one command.
The general commanded an army of several divisions during the campaign.
Two armies were merged under a single front headquarters.
Note
Armies of this kind usually carry a number or a name: the Fourth Army, the Army of the Potomac. Such an army sits inside a larger military and is built from several divisions, often grouped into corps. Like any formation, it can be deployed, depleted and merged into another. Without a name or number, only context separates it from the fighting force in general.
Practice
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Origin
Latin armāre ("to arm"), related to arma ("tools, arms") and going back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- ("to join, fit together"), had a past participle that Medieval Latin made into the noun armāta ("armed force"). Old French turned this into armee, and Middle English borrowed armee from it. Armada is a doublet, and the word pushed out the native Old English here and fierd.