basic training

American

noun

Military. a period following a person's induction into the armed forces devoted to training in basic military comportment, duties, and combat skills.

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.

Drafted into the Army, he and his brother were so fit that they breezed through basic training.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026

They are expected to get a few days of basic training every month, said Saeid Golkar, a Tennessee-based academic and a leading authority on Iran’s security services.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 30, 2026

While he was going through his basic training, Shane did not get access to newspapers or watch TV.

From BBC • Aug. 23, 2025

Dehumanization was central to basic training, Camil remembers, and he illustrates that by singing a few bars of a song they sang as they jogged.

From Salon • Apr. 30, 2025

She’d known him ever since basic training, when he was one of her weapons instructors.

From "City Spies" by James Ponti

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023