regiment
Americannoun
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regiments
plural
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Military. a unit of ground forces, consisting of two or more battalions or battle groups, a headquarters unit, and certain supporting units.
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Obsolete. government.
verb (used with object)
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regiments,
present (3rd person singular)
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regimented,
past participle, past
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regimenting
present participle
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to manage or treat in a rigid, uniform manner; subject to strict discipline.
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to form into a regiment or regiments.
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to assign to a regiment or group.
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to form into an organized group, usually for the purpose of rigid or complete control.
noun
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a military formation varying in size from a battalion to a number of battalions
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a large number in regular or organized groups
regiments of beer bottles
verb
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to force discipline or order on, esp in a domineering manner
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to organize into a regiment or regiments
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to form into organized groups
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to assign to a regiment
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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regimentationnoun
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overregimentverb (used with object)
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nonregimentedadjective
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regimentaladjective
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unregimentedadjective
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regimentallyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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regimentsimple
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regimentssimple
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have regimentedperfect
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has regimentedperfect
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am regimentingprogressive
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are regimentingprogressive
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is regimentingprogressive
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have been regimentingperfect progressive
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has been regimentingperfect progressive
Past
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regimentedsimple
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had regimentedperfect
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was regimentingprogressive
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were regimentingprogressive
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had been regimentingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of regiment
1350–1400; Middle English < Middle French < Late Latin regimentum, equivalent to Latin reg ( ere ) to rule + -i- -i- + -mentum -ment
Explanation
Use the word regiment to describe a military unit that is smaller than a division: “Geoff’s new regiment consisted of three battalions that had been based in Alabama.” Most often used as a noun to describe a military unit made up of several battalions, the word regiment can also be used as a verb. If you ever need to assign troops to a regiment, you might say something like, “Next week I will regiment the ground forces arriving from North Dakota.” The verb form can also be used in a more general sense to describe any action that is characterized by strict order or control: "Her diet is strictly regimented to include only Sugar Babies."
Vocabulary lists containing regiment
Chains
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The American Revolution - Introductory
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"There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury
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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.
See Examples For:
Restaurant owners here, whose business suffers whenever the regiment is mobilized for exercises, fear they won’t survive a permanent withdrawal of troops.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026
Rapamycin is a widely available immunosuppressant drug traditionally used as an anti-rejection regiment for organ transplant patients.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 28, 2026
"Lucy was first on the scene and worked relentlessly to treat casualties and ensure every Guardsman was accounted for and safe," the regiment said.
From BBC ● Feb. 21, 2026
Her former regiment highlighted her bravery when attending to an overturned vehicle in the Falklands that left multiple Welsh Guards injured – which won her a commendation award.
From BBC ● Feb. 21, 2026
Zinaida returned to her regiment, climbed from her plane, and sat on the grass sobbing.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
The founder of the Geek Meet Club wanted to bring like-minded people together and exclude the regiments of fakes she says have undermined online dating.
From BBC ● May 21, 2026
West of Cairo, Egypt’s capital, a beautifully tended cemetery, roses and all, carries the graves of many of Montgomery’s Eighth Army, their names and regiments carefully inscribed on the pink limestone.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
The toll among African soldiers, according to Inpact, has been highest in regiments stationed in Donetsk, a region of eastern Ukraine that Russia has repeatedly tried and failed to seize.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026
The Times often published the lists of their names and regiments, like a phantom roll call: the 121st Ohio, the 11th Indiana, the 29th Michigan, the 17th Kansas, the 10th Wisconsin.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 6, 2024
All the women liked to keep track of what the other aviation regiments were doing, so they wrote letters to friends they’d made while they were training at Engels.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
Daily life in the Japanese jail was strict, with a regimented routine of sleep, meals and listening to the radio.
From BBC ● Feb. 1, 2026
“They are very disciplined and regimented about when they stop using it.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 18, 2025
He changed his mind, however: “I said, ‘I’m going join a club so everything can be regimented.’
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2025
The walls of these rooms accomplish a kind of muting of her aura, a place where veneration feels austere or regimented by bureaucracy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 29, 2025
Mrs. Richardson had, her entire existence, lived an orderly and regimented life.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
When my father was a small boy in Galveston, Texas, with no siblings to play with or anything like a helicopter parent regimenting his time, he roamed the inscrutable world of adults all around him.
From New York Times ● Sep. 22, 2021
He began obsessively working out and regimenting his meals.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 17, 2019
Harrison was the disciplinarian who drummed into Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt, the Neville brothers and everybody else coming through United’s system the importance of regimenting, hard graft and accepting orders.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 8, 2015
In lassoing and regimenting the muse, fiction apps evaporate some of writing’s pain, but also some of its glory.
From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2014
I am not now speaking of the popular idea of regimenting people’s thought; I’m speaking of the implicit, almost unconscious, or pre-conscious, assumptions and ideals upon which whole nations and races act and live.
From "Native Son" by Richard Wright
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
