infantry
Americannoun
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soldiers or military units that fight on foot, in modern times typically with rifles, machine guns, grenades, mortars, etc., as weapons.
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a branch of an army composed of such soldiers.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of infantry
1570–80; < Italian infanteria, equivalent to infante boy, foot-soldier ( see infant) + -ria -ry
Explanation
Armies usually contain different divisions for different purposes. For example, soldiers on horseback belong to the Cavalry, those who work in communications are in the Signal Corps, and soldiers specially trained to fight on foot are members of the Infantry. It seems somewhat strange to have the word "infant" in a word that refers to a fighting military unit, but the word infantry once referred to the foot soldiers who were too young or too inexperienced to qualify for the cavalry. The word was taken from the Latin word for a youth, infantem, and so evolved into infantry after working its way through the Spanish, Italian, and French, appearing in English in the late 16th Century.
Vocabulary lists containing infantry
The Things They Carried
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The American Civil War
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Ancient Rome - Introductory
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Hegseth served as an Army National Guard infantry officer in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay before becoming a contributor to Fox News in 2014.
From Salon • May 1, 2026
“Most of my military friends are all saying the same thing,” said D’Amico, who is also a former infantry platoon commander in the U.S.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 29, 2026
Outwardly a barren desert island, Larak has housed a Russian-made satellite communications-jamming system guarded by Iranian naval infantry and fast-attack vessels with antiship missiles, according to Israel-based Alma Research and Education Center.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 2, 2026
George served as an infantry officer in the first Gulf War and in recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
From BBC • Apr. 2, 2026
I can tell it’s been recently cut because of the uneven tan on the skin visible between his shirt collar and the back of his fitted sandstone infantry cap.
From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
