Army

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɑː.mi/

Definitions

1. A large organized group of soldiers trained and equipped for combat on land
2. A military force maintained by a nation for defense and warfare purposes
3. A vast number of people or things organized to work together toward a common goal or objective

Etymology: Before "army" meant a force of soldiers, English relied on Old English "here" and "fierd" for the same idea, and both were eventually pushed aside by a word that came in through French. The French form "armee" was itself built from Medieval Latin "armata", a noun that grew out of the past participle of "armare", "to arm". In other words, the word's core meaning is literally "the armed (things or people)", a group defined by what it carries. The Latin "arma" at the root meant "tools" or "arms" in the broad sense, and it traces back to an ancient Indo-European root meaning "to join, fit together", a sense that hints at the idea of fitting equipment onto a body. The English term arrived in Middle English around 1386, and it is a doublet of "armada", which came through Spanish and Portuguese from the same Latin ancestry.

Synonyms: military, force, troops, soldiers, legion

Antonyms: civilian, peace