colonel

American  

[kur-nl] / ˈkɜr nl /

noun

1. an officer in the U.S. Army, Air Force, or Marine Corps ranking between lieutenant colonel and brigadier general: corresponding to a captain in the U.S. Navy.

2. a commissioned officer of similar rank in the armed forces of some other nations.

3. an honorary title bestowed by some Southern states, as to those who have brought honor to the state, prominent businesspersons, visiting celebrities, or the like.

   When the vice president visited the state he was made a Kentucky colonel.

4. Older Use. (in the South) a title of respect prefixed to the name of distinguished elderly men.

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colonel British  

/ ˈkɜːnəl /

noun

1. an officer of land or air forces junior to a brigadier but senior to a lieutenant colonel

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Pronunciation

Colonel , with its medial l pronounced as , illustrates one source for the apparent vagaries of English spelling: divergence between a word's orthographic development and its established pronunciation. In this case, English borrowed from French two variant forms of the same word, one pronounced with medial and final , and a second reflecting dissimilation of the first to . After a period of competition, the dissimilated form triumphed in pronunciation, while the spelling colonel became the orthographic standard.

Other Word Forms

• colonelcy
  noun

Etymology

Origin of colonel

1540–50; < Middle French < Italian colon(n)ello, equivalent to colonn(a) column + -ello < Latin -ellus diminutive suffix; so named because such an officer originally headed the first column or company of a regiment

Explanation

A colonel is a commissioned military officer in the U.S. Army, Air Force, or Marines who ranks above a lieutenant colonel and below a brigadier general. We still say colonel like the French word it comes from, coronel, which means "chief." To your ear, it probably sounds like "kernel." A colonel leads a regiment, but there are many other levels of officers, all generals, above him. Just below the colonel is the lieutenant colonel, which means colonel’s aide, and below that is the rank of major.

Example Sentences

Court documents point to Colonel Mohammed Ma'aji as the alleged chief strategist.

From BBC • Apr. 24, 2026

Lieutenant Colonel Sani Uba, spokesman for operations in the northeast, said that the strikes followed "sustained intelligence" and "a rigorous and professional targeting process".

From Barron's • Apr. 13, 2026

Moscow later fumed that this had led to the fall of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

From Barron's • Apr. 7, 2026

Colonel Parker, Elvis’s manager, kept his cash cow on a leash, tethering him first to middling B-pictures, then to casinos.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 19, 2026

Then adds, glancing at the Colonel, “Sorry, sir. But I mean, credit where credit is due.”

From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin