Word.ws English Dictionary

sergeant

UK/ˈsɑː.d͡ʒənt//ˈsɑɹ.d͡ʒənt/

sergeant noun: a UK army rank with NATO code OR-6, senior to corporal and junior to warrant officer ranks.

Noun (1)

sergeant (plural sergeants)

  1. A UK army rank with NATO code OR-6, senior to corporal and junior to warrant officer ranks.
    Synonyms:
    sarge, sarnt
  2. The highest rank of noncommissioned officer in some non-naval military forces and police.
    • “Yes, there are two distinct sets of footprints, both wearing rubber shoes—one I think ordinary plimsolls, the other goloshes,” replied the sergeant.1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 13, in Well Tackled!
  3. (historical) A lawyer of the highest rank, equivalent to the doctor of civil law.
    • All other sergeants and barristers indiscriminately (except in the Court of Common Pleas, where only sergeants are admitted) may take upon them the protection and defense of any suitors.1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC
  4. (UK, historical) A title sometimes given to the servants of the sovereign.
    • sergeant surgeon, i.e. a servant, or attendant, surgeon
  5. A bailiff.
  6. A servant in monastic offices.
  7. A fish, the píntano (Abudefduf saxatilis), a species of damselfish.
  8. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Athyma; distinct from the false sergeants.

Noun (2) capitalized: Sergeant

Sergeant (plural Sergeants)

  1. The title of a sergeant, added before their name.

Proper noun capitalized: Sergeant

Sergeant

  1. A surname originating as an occupation for a servant.
  2. A township in McKean County, Pennsylvania, United States.

sergeant meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

sergeant in Hindi

noncommissioned officer rank
सार्जण्ट sārjaṇṭ, हवलदार havaldār, सारजंट sārjaṇṭ, सार्जंट sārjaṇṭ, हवालदार havāldār, जमादार jamādār

sergeant in Tamil

காவல் உதவி ஆய்வாளர், தண்டுத்தலைவர், செய்வகர்

sergeant in Marathi

सार्जंट

sergeant in Urdu

noncommissioned officer rank
سارجنٹ sārjanṭ
More languagesFewer languages
sergeant in Bengali
সার্জেণ্ট śarjenṭo
sergeant in Telugu
సుబేదారు subēdāru, సుబేదారుడు subēdāruḍu
sergeant in Malayalam
സൈനികോദ്യോഗസ്ഥൻ, സാർജെൻറ്, ഉയർന്ന ബാരിസ്റ്റർ
sergeant in Kannada
ಪಡೆಮುಂಚ
sergeant in Punjabi
ਸਾਰਜੈਂਟ, ਸਰਜੈਂਟ
sergeant in Gujarati
સાર્જન્ટ, સાર્જેન્ટ
sergeant in Odia
ସାର୍ଜେଣ୍ଟ୍, ସାର୍ଜେଣ୍ଟ
sergeant in Nepali
सार्जन्ट, सार्जेन्ट
sergeant in Arabic
رَقِيب raqīb, عَرِيف ʕarīf
sergeant in Malay
sarjan
sergeant in Indonesian
sersan
sergeant in Persian
گروهبان goruhbân
sergeant in Thai
จ่า jàa, สิบเอก sìp-èek
sergeant in Vietnamese
trung sĩ
sergeant in Myanmar
ဆာဂျင် hcagyang, စာသင် casang

Examples of sergeant in a sentence

  • The sergeant sent out an order to arm the team for the next mission.
  • The sergeant was up by 6:00 every morning, drilling his troops.
  • The sergeant rapped out a word of command to the troops.

All 40 example sentences with sergeant

Synonyms of sergeant

Forms of sergeant

pluralsergeants
alternative formserjant
alternative formsergeaunt
alternative formserjeant
pluralSergeants

Plural of sergeant: sergeants

Origin of sergeant

From Middle English sergeant, sergeaunt, serjent, serjaunt, serjawnt, sergant, from Old French sergeant, sergent, serjant, sergient, sergant (“sergeant, servant”), from Medieval Latin servientem, accusative of serviēns (“a servant, vassal, soldier, apparitor”), from Latin serviēns (“serving”), present participle of serviō (“serve, be a slave to”). Doublet of servant and servient. The shift from /vj/ > /dʒ/ was a regular development in Old French. Compare cavea > cage, salvia > sage. The fish is so called because of its stripes, supposed to resemble a sergeant's insignia of rank. The pronunciation with /ɑɹ/ is due to a widespread development of Middle English er + consonant (see barn, start etc.). In sergeant, the spelling was standardised in one way, the pronunciation in another (compare clerk, derby in Commonwealth English, further parson vs. person, and varsity vs. university).

From sergeant.

Words formed from sergeant

Phrases with sergeant

Words that rhyme with sergeant

Questions about sergeant

What does sergeant mean?
Sergeant means a UK army rank with NATO code OR-6, senior to corporal and junior to warrant officer ranks.
What is sergeant in Hindi?
Sergeant in Hindi is सार्जण्ट (sārjaṇṭ), हवलदार (havaldār), सारजंट (sārjaṇṭ). See Sergeant meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is sergeant?
Sergeant can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce sergeant?
Sergeant is pronounced /ˈsɑː.d͡ʒənt/ (UK).
What is the plural of sergeant?
The plural of sergeant is sergeants.

Words near sergeant in the dictionary

  1. sergal
  2. sergals
  3. serge
  4. sergeancies
  5. sergeancy
  6. sergeant
  7. sergeant at mace
  8. sergeant baker
  9. sergeant bakers
  10. sergeant first class
  11. sergeant fish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sergeant (page history and authors); Sergeant (page history and authors); sergeant (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sergeant (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); సుబేదారు (Telugu) (page history and authors); sergeant (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sergeant (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sergeant (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sergeant (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sergeant (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sergeant (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-sergeant.ogg.

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