colonel

SayKUR-nuhl/ˈkɝ.nl̩/UK/ˈkɜː.nl̩/

5 meanings of colonel

1
nouncountable
A senior military officer, ranking above lieutenant colonel and below brigadier or brigadier general, traditionally the commander of a regiment.
The colonel commanding the regiment was promoted to brigadier general last spring.
Two colonels from the Marine Corps briefed the committee on the new training program.
UsageSaid like kernel, despite the spelling. Before a name it takes a capital: Colonel Smith.
2
state honornouncountable
An honorary title that some southern US states, most commonly Kentucky, give to civilians, Colonel Sanders of KFC among them.
The governor named the retired teacher a Kentucky colonel for her decades of community service.
He never served a day in uniform, but after the governor's commission arrived, everyone in town called him Colonel.
UsageUsed like a rank before a name, Colonel Smith, or alone when speaking to the holder.
Note
Kentucky's honor arrives as a commission from the state and asks for no military service. Between 1792 and 1916, by the count of Ron Bryant of the Kentucky Historical Society, 400 of the 650 colonels commissioned there were honorary.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Kentucky awards the honor through a state commission. sos.ky.gov
The honorary title does not require military service. en.wikipedia.org
Ron Bryant, a curator at the Kentucky Historical Society, reported that 400 of the 650 Kentucky colonels commissioned between 1792 and 1916 were honorary. en.wiktionary.org
3
greeting old mennoundatedSouthern UScountable
An informal title of address for an elderly man.
The storekeeper greeted every gray-haired customer as Colonel, whether or not the man had ever worn a uniform.
Out of old Southern habit, she called any elderly man on her porch Colonel, soldier or not.
Note
A courtesy of the older South: it honored a man's years, not any service in uniform, and unlike the state's honorary title it needed no commission at all. It is dated now, so a speaker who uses it today will usually be heard as joking or deliberately old-fashioned.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
Colonel was an informal Southern courtesy address for an elderly man, without implying military service. en.wiktionary.org
The informal address required no commission, unlike the formal honorary title exemplified by Kentucky Colonel. kycolonels.org

Less common meanings

4
nounUS
A form of address for an auctioneer, a usage that goes back to the American Civil War, when commanding officers organized public sales of seized goods.
5
verbrare
To serve as a colonel, or to behave like one.

Practice

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Origin

The word is first recorded in the 1540s. It came from Middle French coronnel, which took it from Old Italian colonnello, the officer leading a small column of soldiers at the front of a regiment. That title came from compagnia colonnella ("little column company") and in the end from Latin columna ("pillar"), a relative of culmen ("top, summit"), going back to a Proto-Indo-European root *kelH- ("to rise, be prominent"). In the 1580s, learned writers respelled it to match the Italian, while pronunciations with "r" and with "l" coexisted until about 1650, after which only the "r" form survived.