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marshal

noun · verb

Simple meaning

An English and Scottish status surname from Middle English for someone who was in charge of the horses of a royal household.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

mahrshuhl

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈmɑɹʃəl

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. An English and Scottish status surname from Middle English for someone who was in charge of the horses of a royal household, or an occupational surname for someone who looked after horses, or was responsible for the custody of prisoners.

  2. in some countries

    A military officer of highest rank

  3. A person in charge of the ceremonial arrangement and management of a gathering.

  4. us

    A federal lawman.

verb

  1. To arrange (troops, etc.) in line for inspection or a parade.

  2. To ceremoniously guide, conduct or usher.

  3. by extension

    To arrange (facts, etc.) in some methodical order.

  4. To gather data for transmission.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: An English and Scottish status surname from Middle English for someone who was in charge of the horses of a royal household, or an occupational surname for someone who looked after horses, or was responsible for the custody of prisoners.

Used this way, marshal is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in family or home contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

  • Family/home

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use marshal

  • “The fire marshal investigated the cause of the recent building blaze.”noun

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: english and Scottish status surname from Middle English for someone who was in charge of the horses of a royal household

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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.