# sergeant

Pronunciation: US say "SAHR-juhnt" /ˈsɑɹ.d͡ʒənt/; UK say "SAH-juhnt" /ˈsɑː.d͡ʒənt/

## Noun

1. A noncommissioned rank in police forces and in armed forces other than navies, the highest in some services; in the British Army, above corporal and below warrant officer.
   - Simple: A rank in the army, air force or police, above corporal and sometimes the highest of the lower ranks.
   - _The sergeant crouched beside the muddy lane and pointed out two sets of tire tracks._
   - _He was promoted to sergeant after six years in the infantry._
2. A bailiff: an officer who carries out the orders of a court.
   - Simple: A bailiff, a person who works for a court and makes people follow its orders.
   - _The court's sergeant arrived with orders to take the debtor's cattle._
   - _The sergeant read out the summons and ordered the tenant to appear before the judge._
3. A lawyer of the highest rank, equal in standing to a doctor of civil law.
   - Simple: A lawyer of the highest level, equal to someone with the top university degree in civil law.
   - _The case was argued by a sergeant, as the Court of Common Pleas required._
   - _After two decades as a barrister, he was at last made a sergeant._
4. Any of various butterflies of the genus Athyma, in the family Nymphalidae, not to be confused with the false sergeants.
   - Simple: Any of several kinds of butterfly in the group Athyma.
   - _A sergeant glided along the forest edge, its dark wings banded with white._
   - _The guide pointed out two sergeants resting on a sunlit leaf beside the trail._
5. A title sometimes given to servants of the sovereign, as in sergeant surgeon. *(UK)*
   - Simple: A title that was sometimes given to people who served the king or queen.
   - _As sergeant surgeon, he attended the king through his final illness._
   - _The palace kept a sergeant of the larder to oversee the royal kitchens' stores._
6. A servant who worked in one of the offices of a monastery.
   - Simple: A servant who did work for the monks in a monastery.
   - _The abbey's sergeant kept the storerooms stocked and answered to the cellarer._
   - _Lay sergeants did the heavy work of the monastery so the monks could keep their hours of prayer._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A species of damselfish, Abudefduf saxatilis, also known as the píntano.

## Origin

From Middle English sergeant, serjent, from Old French sergent, serjant (“sergeant, servant”), from Medieval Latin servientem, from Latin serviēns (“serving”), the present participle of serviō (“serve, be a slave to”); it is a doublet of servant and servient. The /ɑɹ/ pronunciation comes from a widespread Middle English change of er before a consonant, but the spelling was standardized the other way, as with clerk in Commonwealth English.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/sergeant (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).