echelon
a level of command, authority, or rank: After years of service, she is now in the upper echelon of city officials.
a level of worthiness, achievement, or reputation: studying hard to get into one of the top echelon colleges.
Military. a formation of troops, ships, airplanes, etc., in which groups of soldiers or individual vehicles or craft are arranged in parallel lines, either with each line extending to the right of the one in front (right echelon ) or with each line extending to the left of the one in front (left echelon ), so that the whole presents the appearance of steps.
Military. one of the groups of a formation so arranged.
Archaic. any structure or group of structures arranged in a steplike form.
Also called echelon grating. Spectroscopy. a diffraction grating that is used in the resolution of fine structure lines and consists of a series of plates of equal thickness stacked in staircase fashion.
to form in an echelon.
Origin of echelon
1word story For echelon
Ironically, while echelon entered English in a military context, it was the first and second World Wars that extended the meaning to other, nonmilitary, sectors. During World War I, the term took on a more generalized sense of a “level” or “subdivision”; World War II broadened echelon’s usage to describe grades and ranks in professions outside the military.
At the same time, English speakers started using echelon to classify institutions or persons they held in high esteem by referring to them as part of the “upper” or “top” echelon. With this in mind, the phrase “social climber” conjures up the image of people who wish to ascend through the various ladder rungs of society until they reach the top.
popular references For echelon
—Row echelon form: In linear algebra, a simplified form of a matrix in which each non-zero row has more leading zeros than the previous row.
—ECHELON: Code name of a global surveillance system developed by the United States National Security Agency (NSA). It operates by intercepting and processing international communications transmitted via communications satellites.
—Third Echelon: A fictional sub-group of the NSA created by Tom Clancy in his Splinter Cell book series.
Other words for echelon
Other words from echelon
- ech·e·lon·ment, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
British Dictionary definitions for echelon
/ (ˈɛʃəˌlɒn) /
a level of command, responsibility, etc (esp in the phrase the upper echelons)
military
a formation in which units follow one another but are offset sufficiently to allow each unit a line of fire ahead
a group formed in this way
physics a type of diffraction grating used in spectroscopy consisting of a series of plates of equal thickness arranged stepwise with a constant offset
to assemble in echelon
Origin of echelon
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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