Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Colonel |
ColonelNoun1. A commissioned military officer in the United States Army or Air Force or Marines who ranks above a lieutenant colonel and below a brigadier general. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "colonel" was first used: 1548. (references) |
Etymology: Colonel \Colo"nel\, noun. [French expression colonel, Italian colonello, prop., the chief or commander of column, from colonna column, from Latin expression columna. See Column.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definition |
19th Century Satire | A male resident of Kentucky. See KERNEL. Source: Foolish Dictionary, 1904. |
Dream Interpretation | To dream of seeing or being commanded by a colonel, denotes you will fail to reach any prominence in social or business circles. If you are a colonel, it denotes you will contrive to hold position above those of friends or acquaintances. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Public Administration | Senior Officer, category OF-5, Army, UK. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Master | Marshal, field marshal, marechal; general, generalissimo; commander in chief, seraskier, hetman; lieutenant general, major general; colonel, lieutenant colonel, major, captain, centurion, skipper, lieutenant, first lieutenant, second lieutenant, sublieutenant, officer, staff officer, aide-de-camp, brigadier, brigade major, adjutant, jemidar, ensign, cornet, cadet, subaltern, noncommissioned officer, warrant officer; sergeant, sergeant major; color sergeant; corporal, corporal major; lance corporal, acting corporal; drum major; captain general, dizdar, knight marshal, naik, pendragon. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Colonel |
| English words defined with "colonel": Colonelcy, Coronel ♦ David Low ♦ Etat Major ♦ field officer, field-grade officer ♦ general officer, Gold stick, group captain ♦ Judge-Advocate General ♦ lieutenant colonel, light colonel, low ♦ major ♦ Sir David Alexander Cecil Low. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "colonel": Beautiful, Beautifully, Buffs ♦ Calvert's Entire, Codds, Coldstream Guards, Colt's Revolver ♦ Green Howards ♦ Hewson, Hudibras ♦ John Company ♦ Lacedaemonians, Levellers ♦ Misers ♦ Pontius Pilate's Body-Guard, Prick the Garter, Pride's Purge ♦ Rough and Ready ♦ Sartor Resartus, Simon Pure, St. Leger Sweepstakes ♦ Vicar of Bray, Virgin Mary's Guard. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "colonel": Colonnade, Column ♦ Prehnite. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Colonel" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. French (colonel), Romanian (Colonel). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | With all due respect, Colonel, if you don't follow us to Travis Air Force base, we'll blow you out of the sky. (Outbreak; writing credit: Laurence Dworet; Robert Roy Pool) What's the matter Colonel Sandurz? (Spaceballs; writing credit: Mel Brooks and Ronny Graham.) Mr English Colonel telling me to lose weight. (Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me; writing credit: Mike Myers) Crystal. Colonel, I just have one final question before I put Airman O'Malley and Airman Rodriguez on the stand: If you gave an order that Private Santiago wasn't to be touched, and your orders are always followed, then why would Private Santiago be in danger? (A Few Good Men; writing credit: Aaron Sorkin) I didn't know the colonel was married. (Another Fine Mess; writing credit: Arthur J. Jefferson; H.M. Walker) | |
Lyrics | Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip ("The Battle of New Orleans"; performing artist: Johnny Horton) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Un drôle de colonel (1968) Colonel Wotherspoon (1967) McKeever & the Colonel (1962) Calvin and the Colonel (1961) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Erecting a 30-foot tower for a microwave transponder Assistant Boatswain "Colonel" Sanders Party off of WHITING. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |  | Carl I. Aslakson on right As Colonel in Army Air Forces. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |
 | U.S. Army. Walter Reed General Hospital, Washington, D.C. : Chief of Dental Service, Colonel Boak. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | U.S. Medical Field Service School, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. : Colonel Ashburn and R.O.T.C. staff. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
 | Engraving published in Rear Admiral Henry Walke's "Naval Scenes and Reminiscences of the Civil War in the United States ..." (1877), depicting the action between the Confederate River Defense Fleet and Federal ironclads near Fort Pillow, Tennessee, 10 May 1862. Confederate ships, seen at left, include: Colonel Lovell, General Beauregard, General M. Jeff Thompson, General Bragg, General Sumter, Little Rebel and General Earl van Dorn. The Federal ironclads, in the center and right, are: Carondelet, Cincinnati, Mound City, Benton, Saint Louis, Cairo and Pittsburg. A tug is seen in the right foreground. Credit: NAVY. |  | Receives the congratulations of Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, upon being presented with the Distinguished Service Medal in recognition of his service as Commandant of the Marine Corps from 1 December 1936 to 1 January 1944. The presentation took place in Secretary Knox' office on 12 April 1944. Looking on are Lieutenant General Alexander A. Vandegrift, Commandant of the Marine Corps (right) and Colonel James Roosevelt. Credit: NAVY. |
 | Two chain bridges across the Great River (Ostrov, Russia). Plan, elevation, and section] / Chief Drafting Office Engineer Lieutenant Colonel Savlovskii. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | General Lecret and Colonel Figuretti inspecting Cuban recruits at Cuban headquarters ... Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | The daily life of Colonel Lindbergh. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Woodrow Wilson, dressed as an Indian, smokes a peace pipe with Colonel Harvey while Watterson goes into a teepee. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Emma | Austen, Jane | |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | The last was Guy Etienne Alexandre, who was a cavalry colonel, and held some rank in the light horse of Brittany. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | The mayor named retired army Colonel Roberto Debernardi Debernardi as police chief. (references) | |
Civil Liberties | Russia | The six defendants include former intelligence chief of the airborne infantry Colonel Pavel Popovskikh, three other officers, and two civilians. (references) |
Peru | On May 2, retired police Colonel Ildorfo Cueva brought charges of libel and defamation against reporters Jesus Castiglione, Martin Gomez, and Hugo Gonzalez, because they publicly accused him of torture. (references) | |
Economic History | Burundi | Pierre Buyoya overthrew Colonel Bagaza. (references) |
Human Rights | Dominican Republic | The colonel subsequently was promoted. (references) |
Honduras | Retired colonel Hernandez Santos was detained for questioning. (references) | |
Colombia | A police lieutenant colonel, captain, and lieutenant, as well as two DAS agents were suspended. (references) | |
Political Economy | Guatemala | The Constitution requires the Minister of Defense to be either a colonel or a general in the military. (references) |
Comoros | The Anjouan secession crisis subsided after the August 2000 signing of the "Fomboni Declaration of National Unity" by Azali and separatist leader Lieutenant Colonel Said Abeid. (references) | |
Cote d'Ivoire | An October press report described a new 10-12 "secret police" unit or Presidential Investigations Unit established by President Gbagbo, under the control of Colonel Alain-Marc Gbogou. (references) | |
Political Rights | Djibouti | On December 14, 2000, the President replaced Yacin as Police Chief with Colonel Ali Hassan. (references) |
Travel | Chad | U.S. visitors must register with the National Police (Surete Nationale) at "Rue du Colonel Moll" within 72 hours after arrival. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Priscilla Presley | Well, he grew up in it. He was a product of the business. And that was his only way of life. He loved it. He, you know, he traveled all over before he was even really discovered by Colonel Parker. And had venues that he would appear at. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
William H. Taft | 1909-1913 | The construction will go on under a most effective organization controlled by Colonel Goethals and his fellow army engineers associated with him, and will certainly be completed early in the next administration, if not before. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Colonel" is generally used as a noun (proper) -- approximately 57.61% of the time. "Colonel" is used about 1,765 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (proper) | 57.61% | 1,017 | 7,279 |
| Noun (singular) | 42.39% | 748 | 9,115 |
| Total | 100.00% | 1,765 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "colonel" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Colonel | Last name | 130 | 64,918 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
Expressions using "colonel": colonel blimp ♦ colonel of airforces ♦ lieutenant colonel ♦ light colonel. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "colonel": colonel-general, colonel-husband, colonel-in, Colonel-in-chief. | |
Ending with "colonel": Lieutenant-colonel. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "colonel"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | Kolonel (field officer). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | كولونيل, زعيم رتبة, عقيد في الجيش. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | Полковник, Командир На Полк. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 陸軍上 , 上 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | Plukovník. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | oberst. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | Kolonel (Col., minion). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | kolonelo. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | سرهنگ . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | eversti. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | Colonel (Col.). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Oberst (group captain, headmost, topmost). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | συνταγματάρχης. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | ְלוף ־ש ". (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | Ezredes (col., group captain). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | kolonel. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | colonello (headmost, topmost). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 大佐 (captain). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | たいさ (captain, great difference), くうさ (lieutenant, major), いっさ. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 대 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | curnal. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Norwegian | oberst. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Papiamen | kolonèl. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | olonelcay pułkownik. (various references) coronel. (various references) Colonel. (various references) Полковник. (various references) còirneil (a colonel), còirneal (an army colonel). (various references) pukovnik. (various references) coronel (headmost, topmost). (various references) överste. (various references) Albay. (various references) polkownik (r). (various references) Полковник. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | columna. (various references) |
| Italian | 900-Modern | colonnella. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "colonel": colonelcies, colonelcy, colonels. (additional references) | |
| |
"Colonel" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: celutel, cholonic, clonal, clongeel, Clonmell, clooner, Cofone, colenel, collonal, collone, collonic, Collooney, colnel, colnol, coloe, Colognole, colonal, colone, coloni, Colonne, colono, colonol, colonum, Kolone. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "colonel" (pronounced ker"nul) |
| 5 | k er" n u l | kernel. |
| 4 | -er" n u l | diurnal, eternal, external, fraternal, infernal, internal, journal, maternal, nocturnal, paternal, vernal. |
| 3 | -n u l | abdominal, aberrational, aboriginal, additional, adrenal, anal, annal, annul, Arsenal, atonal, attitudinal, autumnal, binational, biphenyl, cantonal, Cardinal, carnal, channel, coeducational, collisional, communal, compositional, computational, concessional, conditional, confessional, conformational, confrontational, congregational, congressional, connotational, constitutional, conventional, conversational, cornel, correctional, criminal, Darnel, delusional, denominational, departmental, depositional, devotional, diagonal, dimensional, directional, divisional, doctrinal, duodenal, dysfunctional, educational, emotional, empanel, erosional, exceptional, factional, faunal, fennel, fictional, final, flannel, fluxional, foundational, fractional, functional, funnel, gastrointestinal, generational, gravitational, hexagonal, hormonal, Hymnal, impanel, impersonal, improvisational, informational, inspirational, institutional, instructional, intentional, intergenerational, international, interpersonal, intestinal, investigational, Invitational, irrational, jurisdictional, juvenile, kennel, latitudinal, longitudinal, luminal, marginal, medicinal, monoclonal, monsoonal, morainal, motivational, multinational, national, navigational, nominal, noncriminal, nonprofessional, nontraditional, nutritional, obsessional, occasional, occupational, octagonal, operational, optional, organizational, original, panel, penal, personal, phenomenal, polygonal, polyvinyl, processional, professional, promotional, proportional, provisional, rational, recreational, regional, relational, renal, representational, retinal, rotational, seasonal, sectional, semifinal, seminal, sensational, sentinel, shrapnel, signal, situational, spinal, subliminal, superregional, supranational, terminal, tonal, traditional, transformational, transitional, transnational, tribunal, tunnel, unconditional, unconstitutional, unconventional, unemotional, unintentional, unprofessional, untraditional, vaginal, venal, Vinal, vinyl, virginal, vocational. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-e-l-l-n-o-o" | |
-1 letter: colone. | |
-2 letters: cello, clone, colon. | |
-3 letters: cell, clon, cole, cone, cool, coon, enol, leno, loco, lone, loon, noel, nolo, oleo, once. | |
-4 letters: cel, col, con, coo, ell, eon, loo, noo, ole, one. | |
-5 letters: el, en, lo, ne, no, oe, on. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-e-l-l-n-o-o" | |
+1 letter: colonels. | |
+2 letters: colonelcy. | |
+3 letters: collarbone, collection, controlled, controller, counsellor, enological, noncollege. | |
+4 letters: citronellol, collagenous, collarbones, collections, collembolan, colonelcies, colonialize, controllers, counsellors, cycloolefin, decollation, lichenology, neocolonial, noncolleges, nucleosomal, penological, precolonial, violoncelli, violoncello. | |
+5 letters: citronellols, cocounselled, collembolans, colonialized, colonializes, colonialness, colorfulness, compellation, complexional, controllable, cycloolefins, decollations, decontrolled, duodecillion, economically, ethnological, inconsolable, monometallic, necrological, neurological, noncollector, noncollinear, nonmolecular, oblanceolate, phenological, polyphenolic, reallocation, recollection, semicolonial, uncontrolled, unecological, violoncellos. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Fiction 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Quotations: Spoken 10. Quotations: Speeches 11. Usage Frequency 12. Names: Frequency | 13. Expressions 14. Expressions: Internet 15. Translations: Modern 16. Translations: Ancient | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
