colonels
- 1Plural of colonel.
Several colonels were passed over for promotion to general this year.
The governor named a dozen new Kentucky colonels at the ceremony, including a retired schoolteacher.
Note
In uniform, colonels typically hold the rank just below general, in armies, air forces and marine corps, but the plural also gathers civilians. Some southern US states, Kentucky above all, name honorary colonels, so a new batch of Kentucky colonels can include a schoolteacher. American auctioneers are addressed as colonel too, a habit traced to Civil War officers who ran sales of seized goods.
colonels is a form of colonel
colonel, noun: A senior military officer, ranking above lieutenant colonel and below brigadier or brigadier general, traditionally the commander of a regiment. Full entry
- Forms
- colonelcolonels plural
- Spelling
- colonel → colonels: add -s
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /z/.
Use it in a sentence
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