soldier
Syllables: sol·dier/ˈsəʊld͡ʒə//ˈsoʊld͡ʒɚ/
soldier noun: a member of a ground-based army, of any rank, but especially an enlisted member.
Noun
soldier (plural soldiers)
- A member of a ground-based army, of any rank, but especially an enlisted member.
- My friends and I saw a soldier questioning a man holding a bag with a gun in his pocket.
- The Citizens in their rage, imagining that euery poſt in the Churche had bin one of yᵉ Souldyers, ſhot habbe or nabbe at randon uppe to the Roode lofte, and to the Chancell, leauing ſome of theyr arrowes ſticking in the Images.1577, Raphaell Holinshed; Richarde Stanyhurst [i.e., Richard Stanihurst], “[The Historie of Irelande […].] The Thirde Booke of the Historie of Ireland, Comprising the Raigne of Henry the Eyght: ….”...
- Any member of a military, regardless of specialty.
- An enlisted member of a military service, as distinguished from a commissioned officer.
- She saw a soldier while collecting her baggage at the airport.
- It were meet that any one, before he came to be a captain, should have been a soldier.1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […]...
- A guardsman.
- A member of the Salvation Army.
- A low-ranking gangster or member of a gang, especially the mafia, who engages in physical conflict.
- A piece of buttered bread (or toast), cut into a long thin strip for dipping into a soft-boiled egg.
- Beside his egg was a plate of buttered toast, already cut up into soldiers.2008, Nicholas Drayson, A Guide to the Birds of East Africa, page 180
- A term of approbation for a young boy.
- Someone who fights or toils well.
- [L]et 'em know how important it is to have Runyon Avenue soldiers up in our corners; their loyalty to us is worth more than any award is.2004, “Like Toy Soldiers”, in Encore, performed by Eminem, Shady Records
- A red or cuckoo gurnard (Chelidonichthys cuculus).
- One of the asexual polymorphic forms of termites, in which the head and jaws are very large and strong. The soldiers serve to defend the nest.
- A red herring (cured kipper with flesh turned red).
- A xiangqi piece that moves and captures by advancing one point. Once it has crossed the river, it may also move and capture one point horizontally.
- A brick, for example in a course of brickwork, that is laid vertically on its shortest end (smallest face), so that its tallest and slimmest face faces the outside of the wall.
Verb
soldier (third-person singular simple present soldiers, present participle soldiering, simple past and past participle soldiered)
- To continue steadfast; to keep striving.
- To serve as a soldier.
- To intentionally restrict labor productivity; to work at the slowest rate that goes unpunished.
- Synonyms:
- dog it, fuck the dog, goldbrick
- To take a ride on (another person's horse) without permission.
- It was the first time I had ever “soldiered” a horse. Soldiering means using a horse without the owner's leave or knowledge. Two of our lost horses we never found. Probably some one was soldiering them!1917, Cuthbert Fetherstonhaugh, After many days: being the reminiscences of Cuthbert Fetherstonhaugh
Proper noun capitalized: Soldier
Soldier
- A tiny city in Monona County, Iowa.
- A tiny city in Jackson County, Kansas.
- An unincorporated community and coal town in Carter County, Kentucky.
- An unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania.
soldier meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
soldier in Hindi
- member of an army
- सैनिक sainik, सिपाही sipāhī, फ़ौजी faujī
soldier in Tamil
- member of an army
- போர்வீரன் pōrvīraṉ
soldier in Marathi
- member of an army
- सैनिक sainik
soldier in Urdu
- member of an army
- سِپاہی sipāhī, فَوجی faujī, عَسْکَرِی 'askarī, لَشْکَری laśkarī, سَینِک sainik, سولْجَر soljar
More languagesFewer languages
- soldier in Bengali
- সৈনিক śōinik, লস্কর loskor, সিপাহী sipahī, সেনানী senanī
- soldier in Telugu
- బంటు baṇṭu, సైనికుడు sainikuḍu
- soldier in Malayalam
- പടയാളി paṭayāḷi
- soldier in Kannada
- ಸೈನಿಕ sainika
- soldier in Punjabi
- ਸੈਨਿਕ sainik
- soldier in Gujarati
- સૈનિક sainik
- soldier in Odia
- ସୈନିକ sainika
- soldier in Sanskrit
- सैनिक sainika
- soldier in Sinhala
- සොල්දාදුවා soldāduwā
- soldier in Assamese
- সৈনিক xoinik
- soldier in Nepali
- सैनिक sainik
- soldier in Pashto
- سرتېری sarteray, سپاهي spāhi, سپايي spāyi, زمېريالي zmeryālay
- soldier in Tagalog
- sundalo, kawal, mananandata
- soldier in Arabic
- جُنْدِيّ jundiyy, عَسْكَرِيّ ʕaskariyy, جندي jundi, عسكري ʕaskari
- soldier in Malay
- askar, tentera, perajurit, hulubalang
- soldier in Indonesian
- prajurit, tentara, serdadu, laskar
- soldier in Thai
- ทหาร tá-hǎan
- soldier in Vietnamese
- người lính, bộ đội, binh sĩ, binh lính
- soldier in Myanmar
- စစ်သား cacsa:, သူရဲ surai:
- Kashmiri
- سِپاہ sipāh, جٔنٛگی jạngī, فوٗجی fūjī, مِلٹٔری وول milṭạrī vōl
Examples of soldier in a sentence
- The soldier took his gun to the shooting range to zero its aim.
- The soldiers had to acclimatize before starting operations in the desert.
- The general refused to order his soldiers to retreat, despite being vastly outnumbered.
Synonyms of soldier
15 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of soldier
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | soldiers |
| alternative pronunciation-spelling | sojah |
| alternative pronunciation-spelling | soldiuh |
| alternative form (obsolete) | soldior |
| alternative form (obsolete) | soldiour |
| alternative form (obsolete) | souldier |
| alternative form (obsolete) | souldior |
| alternative form (obsolete) | souldiour |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | soldiers |
| present participle | soldiering |
| past participle | soldiered |
| past | soldiered |
Origin of soldier
Inherited from Middle English soudeour, from Old French soudier or soudeour (“mercenary”), from Medieval Latin soldarius (“soldier (one having pay)”), from Late Latin solidus, a type of coin. Displaced Old English cempa (whence obsolete kemp). (red herring): An allusion to soldiers' red uniforms; red herring is, reciprocally, a slang term for "soldier".
Words formed from soldier
- armored soldier
- buffalo soldier
- Canadian soldier
- child soldier
- chocolate soldier
- Christian soldier
- come the old soldier
- dead soldier
- dog soldier
- foot soldier
- freshwater soldier
- horse soldier
- old soldier
- plague soldier beetle
- sea soldier
- shaggy soldier
- soldier beetle
- soldierbush
- soldier crab
- soldierdom
- soldieress
- soldierfish
- soldier fly
- soldier-girl
- soldierize
- soldierless
- soldier-like
- soldierlike
- soldier of misfortune
- soldier-proof
- soldier river barb
- soldiership
- soldier thistle
- soldierwood
- soldiery
- straight as a soldier
- summer soldier
- supersoldier
- tin soldier
- water soldier
- soldierly
Phrases with soldier
- soldier crabs
- soldier flies
- soldier beetles
- Unknown Soldier
- Brues' soldier fly
- Brues' soldier flies
- came the old soldier
- comes the old soldier
- sugarcane soldier fly
- Australian soldier fly
- coming the old soldier
- plague soldier beetles
2 more phrasesFewer phrases
Questions about soldier
- What does soldier mean?
- Soldier means a member of a ground-based army, of any rank, but especially an enlisted member.
- What is soldier in Hindi?
- Soldier in Hindi is सैनिक (sainik), सिपाही (sipāhī), फ़ौजी (faujī). See Soldier meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is soldier?
- Soldier can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce soldier?
- Soldier is pronounced /ˈsəʊld͡ʒə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of soldier?
- The plural of soldier is soldiers.
Words near soldier in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: soldier (page history and authors); Soldier (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-uk-soldier.ogg, en-us-soldier.ogg.
Cite this entry: “soldier.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/soldier. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.