garrison
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A military unit, nominally headed by a colonel, equivalent to a USAF support wing, or an army regiment.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
garihsuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡæɹɪsən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
USmilitaryU.S. Space Force
A military unit, nominally headed by a colonel, equivalent to a USAF support wing, or an army regiment.
The troops stationed at such a post.
A permanent military post.
verb
To assign troops to a military post.
To occupy with troops.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The troops stationed at such a post.
Used this way, garrison is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a military use: it belongs to service and operational language.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Military
- Historical writing
- News/reporting
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use garrison
- “The ancient fort once housed a large garrison of soldiers protecting the city.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A wedge-shaped wool or cotton cap.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: military unit or nominally headed by a colonel
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.