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battalion

UK/bəˈtæl.i.ən/US/bəˈtæl.jən/
nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #3,347 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: battalions

A battalion is a unit of several hundred soldiers. An infantry battalion, the battalion advanced, battalion commander.

It usually runs to six or eight hundred and is commanded by a lieutenant colonel, sitting between the company and the brigade. It is the level at which a unit can operate on its own, with its own supply and headquarters. Note that the word comes from the same root as battle.

CdnMCG · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of battalion

  1. 1nounbattalionA unit of several hundred soldiers.B2

    “The battalion marched through the night to reach the front line.”

battalion is a military unit.

Where it comes from

Middle French bataillon comes from Italian battaglione, from battaglia, a battle. Battle and batter come from the same striking.

  1. Middle French

    battaillon

  2. English, today

    battalion

From Middle French battaillon (modern French bataillon).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Military & Defence

Practise this word

battalion in the wild

  • The typical battalion is built from three operational companies, one weapons company and one headquarters company.

    Battalion

  • The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS) is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

    Black Watch

  • After the Second World War the regiment was reduced first to three battalions, then to two, and finally to one battalion in the mid-1990s.

    Grenadier Guards

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.