logistics
Americannoun
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the branch of military science and operations dealing with the procurement, supply, and maintenance of equipment, with the movement, evacuation, and hospitalization of personnel, with the provision of facilities and services, and with related matters.
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the planning, implementation, and coordination of the details of a business or other operation.
noun
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the science of the movement, supplying, and maintenance of military forces in the field
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the management of materials flow through an organization, from raw materials through to finished goods
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the detailed planning and organization of any large complex operation
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of logistics
First recorded in 1875–80; from French logistique “quartermaster's work,” equivalent to log(er) “to lodge, be quartered (said of troops)” + -istique -istic; see -ics
Explanation
When you sit down to plan a party and work out how many cups you need, where you'll put the chairs, and what time you'll start cooking, you are working out the logistics — the necessary details. Logistics can describe difficult, technical operations. Many colleges have departments of logistics, which teach students how to plan for complicated events, like wars. The term is often used in military contexts to describe how to get soldiers to a certain place with enough food, toilet paper, guns, ammunition, and transportation. You'll often hear logistics used in regular speech to describe any effort that requires some prior planning — even if it's just the logistics of picking someone up at the airport.
Vocabulary lists containing logistics
The Things They Carried
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Drama
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This Week in Pop Culture: December 1 - 7, 2018
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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.
More friction in logistics and tighter commoity markets explain why what Currie called the “molecule complex” is printing fresh records every week.
From MarketWatch • May 15, 2026
D-Wave Quantum: The company has cornered the market for “annealing quantum,” an approach tailored to optimization tasks like logistics and data sampling.
From Barron's • May 15, 2026
Equipment wholesaling and transportation logistics are service industries that saw big jumps in the April data, a sign that higher oil prices are transitioning into a “second-order effect,” Helfstein says.
From Barron's • May 13, 2026
Travel agents offer insider information, secure upgrades, and handle logistics, which AI tools currently cannot provide.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 13, 2026
As the group shifted the conversation to the logistics of getting the invitations out as quickly and efficiently as possible, Moss reached under the table again to grasp Javier’s hand.
From "Anger Is a Gift" by Mark Oshiro
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.
