Word.ws English Dictionary

miles gloriosus

miles gloriosus noun: a standard character in ancient comedy and in modern comedy depicting ancient military figures: the bravado-filled, self-important, swaggering soldier.

Noun (1)

miles gloriosus (plural milites gloriosi)

  1. (literary, performing arts) A standard character in ancient comedy and in modern comedy depicting ancient military figures: the bravado-filled, self-important, swaggering soldier.
    • [I]t of course ought not to be said that the General who assumes the responsibility behaved "generously" on one occasion and "magnanimously" upon another. About such expressions there is a reminiscence of the classical "Miles gloriosus" of the British Nelson, or of the American Winfield Scott.1898 September 8, “The Army against the War Department”, in New York Times, retrieved 04 Dec 2010
    • He placed Falstaff in the tradition of the miles gloriosus, the type of rascally braggart soldier borrowed from Roman comedy.1932, John W. Draper, “Sir John Falstaff”, in The Review of English Studies, volume 8, number 32, page 414

Noun (2) capitalized: Miles Gloriosus

Miles Gloriosus (plural Milites Gloriosi)

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of miles gloriosus.

Forms of miles gloriosus

pluralmilites gloriosi
pluralMilites Gloriosi

Origin of miles gloriosus

Borrowed from Latin mīles (“soldier”) + glōriōsus (“glorious”).

Questions about miles gloriosus

What does miles gloriosus mean?
Miles gloriosus means a standard character in ancient comedy and in modern comedy depicting ancient military figures: the bravado-filled, self-important, swaggering soldier.
What part of speech is miles gloriosus?
Miles gloriosus is a noun.
What is the plural of miles gloriosus?
The plural of miles gloriosus is milites gloriosi.

Words near miles gloriosus in the dictionary

  1. miles
  2. miles a minute
  3. miles away
  4. Miles City
  5. Miles Cove
  6. miles gloriosus
  7. miles of bad road
  8. Miles Platting
  9. Miles' law
  10. Milesian
  11. Milesian tale

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: miles gloriosus (page history and authors); Miles Gloriosus (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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