corps
Americannoun
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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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Astronauts
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Twins
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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.
In other performances, Joseph Markey, a corps de ballet dancer since 2021, made much of this character’s persona but less of its choreographic challenges.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 30, 2026
They seem to understand intuitively that a corps of manifold resources is more resourceful.
From Slate • Jun. 24, 2026
Obviously enamored with himself, he told the press corps that talking to us was “like I’m talking to a classroom.”
From Salon • Jun. 12, 2026
Bresnik, a California native, graduated from The Citadel with a mathematics degree and joined NASA's astronaut corps in 2004.
From Science Daily • Jun. 11, 2026
Lee asked the condition of the corps, the number of wounded.
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.
