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lieutenant

noun

Simple meaning

The lowest junior commissioned officer rank in many military forces, often Army and Marines.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

lootenuhnt

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

luːˈtɛnənt

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. military

    The lowest junior commissioned officer rank(s) in many military forces, often Army and Marines.

  2. militaryus

    In the US Army, Air Force and Marines, holding the rank above second lieutenant and below captain. Both ranks may be referred to as "lieutenant" or as the complete forms of the ranks.

  3. The second-in-command (2IC) of a group.

  4. Alternative letter-case form of lieutenant (when used as a title before a name)

  5. A person who manages or executes the plans and directives of another, more senior person; a manager to their director.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The lowest junior commissioned officer rank(s) in many military forces, often Army and Marines.

Used this way, lieutenant 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 lieutenant

  • “The lieutenant led the soldiers through the training exercise.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Army / lowest

lieutenant colonelsecond lieutenantlieutenant commanderlord lieutenant

Other combinations

first lieutenantlieutenant governorflight lieutenantyoung lieutenant

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • lieutenant colonelnounCompound term

    A commissioned officer in the United States Army or Air Force or Marines holding a rank above major and below colonel.

  • lieutenant commandernounCompound term

    A commissioned officer in the Navy ranking above a lieutenant and below a commander.

  • lieutenant generalnounCompound term

    A general officer ranking above a major general and below a full general.

  • lieutenant governornounCompound term

    An elected official serving as deputy to the governor of a state of the United States.

  • lieutenant jgnounCompound term

    An officer holding a commissioned rank in the United States Navy or United States Coast Guard.

  • lieutenant junior gradenounCompound term

    An officer holding a commissioned rank in the United States Navy or United States Coast Guard.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

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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.