Word.ws English Dictionary

rearguard

/ˈɹɪəɹˌɡɑɹd/

rearguard noun: the rearmost part of a force, especially a detachment of troops that protect the rear of a retreating force.

rearguard: a man with a gun
Photo by Rusty Watson on Unsplash

Noun

rearguard (plural rearguards)

  1. (attributive, often) The rearmost part of a force, especially a detachment of troops that protect the rear of a retreating force.
    Antonyms:
    vanguard
  2. (attributive, often) The defence, collectively the defenders.
    • Mancini's side only showed enough ambition when it was too late and by then battle lines were drawn as James Collins and former City captain Richard Dunne fought a magnificent rearguard action at the heart of Villa's defence.2011 January 22, Phil McNulty, “Aston Villa 1 - 0 Man City”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 09 Aug 2022

rearguard meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Vietnamese

rearguard in Hindi

rearguard
पुश्त puśt

rearguard in Tamil

the rearmost part of a force
பின்னணி piṉṉaṇi

rearguard in Urdu

rearguard
پشت puśt

rearguard in Vietnamese

the rearmost part of a force
đạo quân hậu tập

Antonyms of rearguard

Forms of rearguard

pluralrearguards
alternative formrear guard
alternative formrear-guard

Origin of rearguard

From Middle English rier garde, from Anglo-Norman reregard, reregarde, rereguarde and Middle French rieregarde, from Old French rereguarde (attested in The Song of Roland, c. 1150), from rere (“after; behind”) + guarde (“guard”). By surface analysis, rear + guard. Piecewise doublet of retrogarde.

Words formed from rearguard

Phrases with rearguard

Questions about rearguard

What does rearguard mean?
Rearguard means the rearmost part of a force, especially a detachment of troops that protect the rear of a retreating force.
What is rearguard in Hindi?
Rearguard in Hindi is पुश्त (puśt). See Rearguard meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is rearguard?
Rearguard is a noun.
How do you pronounce rearguard?
Rearguard is pronounced /ˈɹɪəɹˌɡɑɹd/.
What is the plural of rearguard?
The plural of rearguard is rearguards.

Words near rearguard in the dictionary

  1. rearer
  2. rearers
  3. rearest
  4. reareth
  5. rearfoot
  6. rearguard
  7. rearguard action
  8. rearguard actions
  9. rearguards
  10. reargue
  11. reargued

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rearguard (page history and authors); पुश्त (Hindi) (page history and authors); پشت (Urdu) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-rearguard.wav.

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