Word.ws English Dictionary

leftenant

UK/lɛfˈtɛn.ənt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

India/ˈlef.ʈe.nenʈ/

leftenant is the archaic form of lieutenant.

leftenant is the misspelling of lieutenant.

Meaning of lieutenant

Noun

lieutenant (plural lieutenants)

  1. (US) In the US Army, Air Force and Marines, holding the rank above second lieutenant and below captain. Both ranks may be referred to as "lieutenant" or as the complete forms of the ranks.
  2. (US) A naval officer whose rank is above that of ensign in the United States Navy and below that of a lieutenant commander. There are two ranks of lieutenant: lieutenant junior grade and lieutenant.
  3. (US) A commissioned officer in the United States Coast Guard, Public Health Service, or National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration whose rank is above that of ensign and below lieutenant commander. There are two ranks of lieutenant: lieutenant junior grade and lieutenant.
  4. (UK) A commissioned officer in the British Army and Royal Marines, holding the rank above second lieutenant and below captain. Both ranks may be referred to as "lieutenant"; however, "second lieutenant" is to specify that the officer is not yet a full lieutenant.
  5. (UK) A naval officer whose rank is above that of sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy and below that of a lieutenant commander.
  6. (Australia, Canada, New Zealand) A naval commissioned officer who holds the rank above sub-lieutenant and below lieutenant commander.

See all 9 meanings of lieutenant

Forms of leftenant

pluralleftenants

Origin of leftenant

Phonetic rendering of lieutenant (UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, US (archaic))

Questions about leftenant

What is leftenant the archaic form of?
Leftenant is the archaic form of lieutenant.
How do you pronounce leftenant?
Leftenant is pronounced /lɛfˈtɛn.ənt/ (UK).

Words near leftenant in the dictionary

  1. leftclicking
  2. leftclicks
  3. leftcom
  4. leftcoms
  5. lefte
  6. leftenant
  7. leftenants
  8. lefteous
  9. lefter
  10. leftern
  11. lefters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: leftenant (page history and authors); lieutenant (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.

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Cite this entry: “leftenant.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/leftenant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.