military
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
About armed forces such as the army, marines, navy and air force.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
miluhtuhreeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmɪlətɛɹi
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.
adjective
canadaus
Relating to armed forces such as the army, marines, navy and air force (often as distinguished from civilians or police forces).
Associated with or performed by members of the armed services as contrasted with civilians
Characteristic of members of the armed forces.
Of or relating to the study of the principles of warfare
“He studied military strategy and tactics at the academy.”
Relating to armies or ground forces.
Relating to war.
noun
Armed forces.
The military forces of a nation
“Their military is the largest in the region.”
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Academic
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Relating to armed forces such as the army, marines, navy and air force (often as distinguished from civilians or police forces).
Used this way, military 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.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Relating / associatedadjective
“He studied military strategy and tactics at the academy.”
Militarynoun
“Their military is the largest in the region.”
More ways to use military
- “Their military is the largest in the region.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Intended for military operations abroad.
Appropriate to, or in the way of, a soldier.
Related to the use of the military.
Resembling or characteristic of a soldier.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
With respect to the military.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Capability in terms of personnel and materiel that affect the capacity to fight a war.
All types of censorship conducted by personnel of the armed forces.
A formal ceremony performed by military personnel.
A chaplain in one of the military services.
An official document issued by a government and conferring on the recipient the rank of an officer in the armed forces.
The control of a country by military forces of a foreign power.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A political orientation of a people or a government to maintain a strong military force and to be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- civilianadjective
- armedadjective
- commandernoun
- tacticsnoun
- lieutenantnoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Antonyms
Sense: relating to armed forces such as the army
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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.