infantry

American  

[in-fuhn-tree] / ˈɪn fən tri /

noun

• infantries
  plural

1. soldiers or military units that fight on foot, in modern times typically with rifles, machine guns, grenades, mortars, etc., as weapons.

2. a branch of an army composed of such soldiers.

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infantry British  

/ ˈɪnfəntrɪ /

noun

1. Abbreviation: Inf.   inf. 

   1. soldiers or units of soldiers who fight on foot with small arms

   2. ( as modifier )

      an infantry unit

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• noninfantry
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• infantries
  plural

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

infantry infantries

The once-familiar picture of a war fought with infantry at the front and dog-fights in the air has become increasingly obsolete.

From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026

On Wednesday, the military said it deployed an additional infantry battalion, which typically has hundreds of troops, to the area to patrol and protect it.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

You could think of it as the drone warfare of diplomacy, which is, instead of sending infantry in the normal way to do it and shooting up howitzers, you’re trying different approaches.

From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026

In a video which went viral, he commanded an infantry vehicle as it smashed through a makeshift barricade set up by pro-Moscow forces in the southern city of Mariupol.

From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026

Her husband had gone to Germany with an infantry division, and now she was struggling through the second day of a difficult labor.

From "Farewell to Manzanar" by Jeanne Houston

Industrial culture hardly represented the subcontinent, where infantries of workmen, captured in archival film footage, lugged baskets of construction material for a building designed to look machined.

From New York Times ● Nov. 22, 2019

All other things being equal, both infantries suffer the same losses in the artillery duel.

From Battle Studies by Charles Jean Jacques Joseph Ardant du Picq

The Romans," says Napoleon in his Memoirs, "had two infantries; the first, lightly armed, was provided with a missile weapon; the second, heavily armed, bore a short sword.

From Elements of Military Art and Science Or, Course Of Instruction In Strategy, Fortification, Tactics Of Battles, &C.; Embracing The Duties Of Staff, Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, And Engineers; Adapted To The Use Of Volunteers And Militia; Third Edition; With Critical Notes On The Mexican And Crimean Wars. by Henry Wager Halleck

The soldiers, who deserve no little credit for their work, are members of the Twenty-eighth and the Tenth infantries.

From The Great White Tribe in Filipinia by Paul T. (Paul Thomas) Gilbert

The two infantries were contending; gray Russian lines in the bottom land and already advancing up the slopes.

From Red Fleece by Will Levington Comfort

Related Words

• infantrymen