corps
Americannoun
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corps
plural
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Military.
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a military organization consisting of officers and enlisted personnel or of officers alone: corps of cadets.
the U.S. Marine Corps;
corps of cadets.
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Also called army corps. a military unit of ground combat forces consisting of two or more divisions and other troops.
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a group of persons associated or acting together.
the diplomatic corps;
the press corps.
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Printing. a Continental designation that, preceded by a number, indicates size of type in Didot points of 0.0148 inch (3.8 millimeters).
14 corps.
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Obsolete. corpse.
noun
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a military formation that comprises two or more divisions and additional support arms
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a military body with a specific function
intelligence corps
medical corps
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a body of people associated together
the diplomatic corps
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of corps
First recorded in 1225–75; Middle English corps, cors, from Middle French, from Latin corpus “body”; see also corpse
Explanation
A corps is an army unit consisting of at least two divisions. This word can also refer to other groups of people, like a press corps, which is a gang of journalists trying to get the scoop. Although the word corps comes from the Latin corpus, for “body,” don’t pronounce the p or you’re talking about the kind of body that goes in a coffin. The main meaning of a corps (which is singular despite the s) is a unit of the army. The word applies to other groups, too. A law firm has a corps of lawyers, a doctor has a corps of nurses, and a tiny car could have a corps of clowns.
Vocabulary lists containing corps
Body Language: Corp ("Body")
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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.
Participants, known as corps members, are posted to different parts of the country to work and take part in community service, as well as to foster a sense of national unity.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold is back from a Week 1 injury and playing well behind a productive receiving corps.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
This month, born of a well-known art-world cliché that has long captured our imagination, Kelly tackles no less than the corps of unidentified women in the canon of Western art.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
"Reid and Victor's commitment to exploration, steady leadership, and service to our astronaut corps and our nation have made a lasting impact," said Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026
At Gettysburg he will command a corps, and he will be sick again.
From "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara
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.
