troop

SayTROOPUS/tɹup/UK/tɹuːp/

Pluraltroops

Verbtroops, trooping, trooped

Often confused with troupe

13 meanings of troop

Practice

1
nouncountableplural
Soldiers, or a group of soldiers. People most often use the word in the plural.
The government sent troops to help after the flood.
A troop of soldiers marched past the school.
Similarforces, soldiers
Note
2
nouncountable
A local group of Scouts, made up of one or more small teams of six to eight kids.
Our troop is going camping next weekend.
She joined a Girl Scout troop when she was nine.
Note
3
nouncollectivecountable
A group of people, often a large one.
A troop of kids ran past on their way to the beach.
Troops of tourists filled the square every afternoon.
Similarband, crowd, throng, group, horde
Note
4
verbintransitive
To walk or go somewhere together as a group or crowd.
The kids trooped into the kitchen for lunch.
Every morning the students troop into the hall for assembly.
Similarfile, stream, flock, march, traipse
Note
5
nouncollectivecountable
A group of monkeys.
A troop of monkeys stole the bananas from our table.
The troop climbed high into the trees when the rain started.
Similarband
6
verbintransitive
To keep marching, or to move ahead quickly.
We had to troop on through the mud to reach camp before dark.
Late for her train, she trooped off down the platform.
Similarmarch, hurry, trek
7
nounnonstandardcountable
One soldier, or one member of an army. Many people think this use is wrong and say soldier.
"One troop got hurt, but he's okay now," my cousin told us.
"Every troop out there just wants to get home," she said.
Similarsoldier, trooper
Note
8
nouncountable
A group of soldiers or police sent out together, especially gunners on horseback, tank units or state police.
A troop of police was sent to guard the bridge.
The state police sent a troop to search the woods.
Similardetachment, unit, squad
9
nouncountable
A small army unit of soldiers on horses or in tanks, led by a captain.
My uncle was the captain in charge of a cavalry troop.
The troop rode out at dawn to scout the valley.
Note
10
nouncountable
A group of meerkat families that live together.
The meerkat troop came out of the burrow to sit in the sun.
One meerkat in the troop keeps watch while the others eat.
Similarmob

Less common meanings

11
nounnonstandardcountable
A group of actors who put on shows together. The usual spelling is troupe.
My sister joined a theater troop this summer, and she totally loves it!
"The whole troop is coming to dinner after the show," he texted.
Similartroupe, company
Note
12
nouncountable
A group of mushrooms that grow near each other, but not packed tightly together.
A troop of little brown mushrooms popped up on the lawn after the rain.
We found a troop of mushrooms spread out under the oak tree.
Note
13
nouncountable
A special roll of the drum, or a fast march.
The drummer played the troop, and the soldiers lined up.
At the sound of the troop on the drum, the men fell into line.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of troop apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

Used in English since 1545. It comes from French and goes back to an old Germanic word for a gathering of people.