posse
Americannoun
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a body or force armed with legal authority.
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Slang. a group of friends or associates.
hanging out with your posse; a posse of drug dealers.
noun
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Also called: posse comitatus. the able-bodied men of a district assembled together and forming a group upon whom the sheriff may call for assistance in maintaining law and order
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law possibility (esp in the phrase in posse )
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slang a Jamaican street gang in the US
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informal a group of friends or associates
Etymology
Origin of posse
First recorded in 1575–85; from Medieval Latin posse “power, force,” noun use of Latin infinitive: “to be able, have power,” contraction of potis “able” + esse “to be”; see potent 1
Explanation
A posse is group of people who help the police force when necessary. In a classic Western movie, when the sheriff gathers together a posse, its members usually work to find and arrest the bad guys. The classic image of a posse is from the Old West, of a group of armed cowboys on horses, in pursuit of an outlaw. Originally the term was posse comitatus, Latin meaning the force of the country. Today, the word posse is used most often to refer to a group of friends or people with some common interest, in a somewhat joking way, like your posse that gets together to hit all the garage sales together.
Vocabulary lists containing posse
March: Book Three
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Because They Marched
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A Long Way from Chicago
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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.
The law is an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, which typically places strict limits on how federal forces can be used on U.S. soil.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 15, 2026
And “such circumstances,” they noted, are “exceptional,” because the president is broadly forbidden from deploying the military for domestic law enforcement under the Posse Comitatus Act.
From Slate • Dec. 23, 2025
This would be proscribed by the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits federal armed forces from performing law enforcement activities.
From Salon • Oct. 30, 2025
After going undrafted out of the University of Houston, he began his career with obscure minor-league teams, like the Black Hills Posse and Jacksonville Barracudas.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 28, 2025
That legislation carved a huge exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, the Civil War-era law prohibiting the use of the military for civilian policing.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
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.
