regiment

American  

[rej-uh-muhnt, rej-uh-ment] / ˈrɛdʒ ə mənt, ˈrɛdʒ əˌmɛnt /

noun

• regiments
  plural

1. Military. a unit of ground forces, consisting of two or more battalions or battle groups, a headquarters unit, and certain supporting units.

2. Obsolete. government.

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verb (used with object)

• regiments,
  present (3rd person singular)
• regimented,
  past participle,  past
• regimenting
  present participle

1. to manage or treat in a rigid, uniform manner; subject to strict discipline.

2. to form into a regiment or regiments.

3. to assign to a regiment or group.

4. to form into an organized group, usually for the purpose of rigid or complete control.

regiment British  

noun

1. a military formation varying in size from a battalion to a number of battalions

2. a large number in regular or organized groups

   regiments of beer bottles

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verb

1. to force discipline or order on, esp in a domineering manner

2. to organize into a regiment or regiments

3. to form into organized groups

4. to assign to a regiment

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• regimentation
  noun
• overregiment
  verb (used with object)
• nonregimented
  adjective
• regimental
  adjective
• unregimented
  adjective
• regimentally
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• regiments
  plural

Participles

• regimenting
  present
• regimented
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• regiment
  simple
• regiments
  simple
• have regimented
  perfect
• has regimented
  perfect
• am regimenting
  progressive
• are regimenting
  progressive
• is regimenting
  progressive
• have been regimenting
  perfect progressive
• has been regimenting
  perfect progressive

Past

• regimented
  simple
• had regimented
  perfect
• was regimenting
  progressive
• were regimenting
  progressive
• had been regimenting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will regiment
  simple
• will have regimented
  perfect
• will be regimenting
  progressive
• will have been regimenting
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of regiment

1350–1400; Middle English < Middle French < Late Latin regimentum, equivalent to Latin reg ( ere ) to rule + -i- -i- + -mentum -ment

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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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

regiment regiments regimented regimenting

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

In a statement, her brother Josh Wilde described her as "strength wrapped in softness", while her former regiment commended her "tireless care for others".

From BBC ● Feb. 21, 2026

He said there was a culture in the regiment of people having to "pull their weight" and that Jack was undertaking more duties.

From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2026

And in the 586th, every couple of weeks the regiment could get a truck ride to the nearest town so they could bathe in a public bathhouse, common throughout the Soviet Union.

From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein

The relief depicts an actual event: Shaw, scion of a prominent abolitionist family, is on horseback leading one of the conflict’s first black regiments off to the front.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026

A tally of once-common British birds, Mr. Nicolson writes, “reads like a list of regiments decimated in battle.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025

Shoulder badges indicated that the remains could include soldiers who had fought for two Scottish regiments - the Gordon Highlanders and the Cameron Highlanders.

From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2025

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

While the United States was still reeling from the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 9, 1941, under an order of Stalin, the first of Marina Raskova’s aviation regiments was created.

From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein

Without playing amateur psychologist, I wonder if she found love so scary because her background as a classically-trained musician required her to be disciplined and regimented from an early age?

From BBC ● May 2, 2026

“They are very disciplined and regimented about when they stop using it.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 18, 2025

By the time Franklin Bean graduated, he was leagues more regimented — and more confident.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2025

But the regimented way of conservatory learning was an affront to Kilmer’s wily country-boy sensibilities.

From Salon ● Apr. 2, 2025

Each hour of the day was regimented, and students were lined up and marched from point to point.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann

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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