petty officer

American  

noun

• petty officers
  plural

1. a noncommissioned U.S. Navy rank with three grades.

2. one of the minor officers on a merchant ship, as a boatswain or carpenter.

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petty officer British  

noun

1. a noncommissioned officer in a naval service, comparable in rank to a sergeant in an army or marine corps

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• petty officers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of petty officer

First recorded in 1570–80

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

petty officer

His mother, Valborg, who had emigrated from St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, worked as a domestic; his father, Walter, who had emigrated from St. Croix, was a petty officer in the U.S.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2026

Mr Zhao was a petty officer working at a California naval base.

From BBC ● Jan. 8, 2024

As a petty officer second-class stationed in Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Antarctica, he never experienced combat.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 10, 2023

Gregory Allen Howard was born Jan. 28, 1952, in Norfolk, but moved frequently because of his stepfather’s assignments as a Navy chief petty officer.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 28, 2023

Ishmael Chambers, in the last light of day, found himself seated in the office of the lighthouse chief petty officer, a large man named Evan Powell.

From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson