colonel

American  

[kur-nl] / ˈkɜr nl /

noun

colonels plural

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.

---

colonel British  

/ ˈkɜːnəl /

noun

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

---

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

Derived Forms

• colonelcy
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• colonels
  plural

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

See Examples For:

colonel colonels

A former military lawyer who reached the rank of colonel in the Air Force, Graham ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2016.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026

A retired Air Force Reserve colonel and longtime foreign policy hawk, he spent decades cultivating relationships not only across Capitol Hill but with world leaders, diplomats and advocacy organizations.

From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2026

The Japanese prisoner-of-war camp is run by an enlightened colonel who insists on humane treatment and establishes educational programs, sports competitions and musical groups.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026

Parmitano was a test pilot for the Italian Air Force before becoming a colonel, and was selected as an ESA astronaut in 2009.

From Barron's ● Jun. 9, 2026

At the opposite end of the bridge, Francis Gary Powers was shackled to two East German guards and accompanied by a Soviet colonel.

From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau

The new secretary of the Army, Pete Geren, was handed a list of the Army generals who would serve on that year’s panel to select which colonels would be promoted to one-star general.

From Slate ● Jun. 5, 2026

"The mutiny, led by colonels Charles Andrianasoavina and Lylison René de Rolland, upset the balance of power and led to Rajoelina's seizure of power," said Razakamaharavo.

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2025

By contrast, many authoritarian leaders are colorless, possessing little or no charisma: Consider Francisco Franco, Antonio Salazar, the Greek colonels, Leopoldo Galtieri, Augusto Pinochet, Park Chung-hee.

From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2025

With more than 1 million tons of concrete, steel, earth and plants already removed from the burn areas, two colonels overseeing the operation reached for superlatives to describe the scope of the work.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2025

I went over and there were two colonels there.

From "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers