colonel
/ˈkɜːnəl/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈkəːnəl/
colonel noun: a commissioned officer in an armed military organization, typically the highest rank before flag officer ranks (generals). It is generally found in armies, air forces or naval infantry (marines).
Noun (1)
colonel (plural colonels)
- A commissioned officer in an armed military organization, typically the highest rank before flag officer ranks (generals). It is generally found in armies, air forces or naval infantry (marines).
- The colonel and his sponsor made a queer contrast: Greystone long and stringy, with a face that seemed as if a cold wind was eternally playing on it. […] But there was not a more lascivious reprobate and gourmand in all London than this same Greystone.1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
- A military leader, distinct from the modern professional military rank.
- General Charles-Maximilian Fiennes was made colonel of the army.2009, Ranulph Fiennes, chapter 21, in Mad Dogs and Englishmen: An Expedition Round My Family, London: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 284
- An honorary civilian title bestowed by some southern US states, most commonly Kentucky; notably Colonel Sanders of KFC.
- "Colonel" was often used as an honorific, indicating no actual military service: between 1792 and 1916, according to Ron Bryant, a curator at the Kentucky Historical Society, 400 of the 650 colonels commissioned were honorary.2002, Kate Chopin and Anna Julia Cooper, “Critiquing Kentucky and the South”, in The Southern Literary Journal, volume 35, number 1, page 127
- An informal title used to address an elderly man.
- A form of address for an auctioneer, from the American Civil War practice of commanding officers organizing the public sale of seized goods.
Verb
colonel (third-person singular simple present colonels, present participle (US) coloneling or (UK) colonelling, simple past and past participle (US) coloneled or (UK) colonelled)
- To act as or like a colonel.
- Then did Sir Knight abandon dwelling,
And out he rode Colonelling.1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, London, page 2
- Then did Sir Knight abandon dwelling,
Noun (2) capitalized: Colonel
Colonel (plural Colonels)
- The military officer title.
- Consequently the necessity for the reorganization of the Guard, during the ten months’ absence of yourself and Colonels Smith and Banks, could not have been averted under our present Military Code.1899 March 31, Geo[rge] W[esley] Atkinson, “Status of Members of National Guard, Who were Volunteers In the Spanish War.—Correspondence Between Governor Atkinson and General [Baldwin Day] Spilman.”...
colonel meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
colonel in Hindi
- commissioned office in the armed services
- कर्नल karnal
colonel in Marathi
- commissioned office in the armed services
- कर्नल karnal
colonel in Urdu
- commissioned office in the armed services
- کَرْنَل karnal
colonel in Bengali
- commissioned office in the armed services
- কর্নেল kornel
More languagesFewer languages
- colonel in Telugu
- కర్నల్ karnal
- colonel in Malayalam
- കേണൽ
- colonel in Kannada
- ಕರ್ನಲ್ karnal
- colonel in Gujarati
- કર્નલ karnal
- colonel in Pashto
- ډګروال ḍagarwāl, کرنل karnal, کرنيل karnayl
- colonel in Tagalog
- koronel
- colonel in Arabic
- عَقِيد ʕaqīd, زَعِيم zaʕīm, زَعِيم رُتْبَة zaʕīm rutba, كُولُونِيل kulunīl
- colonel in Malay
- kolonel
- colonel in Indonesian
- kolonel
- colonel in Thai
- พันเอก pan-èek
- colonel in Vietnamese
- đại tá
Examples of colonel in a sentence
- The general ordered the colonel to hold his position at all costs.
- Colonel Easterwood, late of the 34th Carbines, was a guest at the dinner party.
- The soldiers snapped to attention as the colonel entered the room.
Forms of colonel
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | colonels |
| alternative abbreviation | col. |
| alternative abbreviation | Col. |
| plural | Colonels |
| alternative form (obsolete) | coronel |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | colonels |
| present participle US | coloneling |
| present participle UK | colonelling |
| past participle US | coloneled |
| past US | coloneled |
| past participle UK | colonelled |
| past UK | colonelled |
Origin of colonel
First attested in the 1540s, from Middle French coronnel, from Old Italian colonnello (“the officer of a small company of soldiers (column) that marched at the head of a regiment”), from compagnia colonnella (“little column company”), from Latin columna (“pillar”), originally a collateral form of columen, contraction culmen (“a pillar, top, crown, summit”), o-grade form from a Proto-Indo-European *kelH- (“to rise, be elevated, be prominent”). See hill, holm. The French spelling was reformed late 16th century. The English spelling was modified in 1580s in learned writing to conform to the Italian form (via translations of Italian military manuals), and differing pronunciations (either with "r" or "l") coexisted until around 1650, where it came to be pronounced with "r" only. Spanish and Portuguese coronel, also from Italian, shows similar evolution by dissimilation and perhaps by influence of corona.
Capitalization of colonel.
Words formed from colonel
Phrases with colonel
Words that rhyme with colonel
- kernel
- external
- internal
- diurnal
- infernal
- journal
- eternal
- fraternal
- paternal
- maternal
- hyosternal
- nocturnal
40 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- sempiternal
- supernal
- vernal
- anteroexternal
- anterointernal
- antesternal
- asternal
- chondrosternal
- coeternal
- coracosternal
- costosternal
- coxosternal
- dorsoexternal
- dorsointernal
- episternal
- hesternal
- hodiernal
- infrasternal
- intersternal
- latisternal
- mesosternal
- metasternal
- midsternal
- nonexternal
- noninternal
- parasternal
- peristernal
- posteroexternal
- posterointernal
- poststernal
- presternal
- retrosternal
- sternal
- substernal
- supersternal
- suprasternal
- ternal
- tracheosternal
- transsternal
- vertebrosternal
Questions about colonel
- What does colonel mean?
- Colonel means a commissioned officer in an armed military organization, typically the highest rank before flag officer ranks (generals). It is generally found in armies, air forces or naval infantry (marines).
- What is colonel in Hindi?
- Colonel in Hindi is कर्नल (karnal). See Colonel meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is colonel?
- Colonel can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce colonel?
- Colonel is pronounced /ˈkɜːnəl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of colonel?
- The plural of colonel is colonels.
Words near colonel in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: colonel (page history and authors); Colonel (page history and authors); colonel (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-colonel.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-Colonel.wav.
Cite this entry: “colonel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/colonel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.