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

Etymology

Origin of regiment

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

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

The regiment takes part in events including Trooping the Colour, the State Opening of Parliament, jubilee parades and visits by foreign heads of state.

From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2026

Zhang joined the army at the age of 18 and moved up the ranks in a regiment headquartered in southwestern Yunnan province, which borders Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.

From Barron's ● Feb. 4, 2026

But a Pe-2 from another Soviet regiment was not so lucky.

From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein

The founder of the Geek Meet Club wanted to bring like-minded people together and exclude the regiments of fakes she says have undermined online dating.

From BBC ● May 21, 2026

West of Cairo, Egypt’s capital, a beautifully tended cemetery, roses and all, carries the graves of many of Montgomery’s Eighth Army, their names and regiments carefully inscribed on the pink limestone.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026

Soon the fraying American regiments were being hounded south by west through New Jersey, and by Christmas Day King George’s troops had driven them across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 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

When the Soviet Union entered World War II in 1941, Marina Raskova took command of a thousand female aviators and trained them to fly in three separate bomber and fighter regiments.

From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein

What Mr. Barragán finds in Nigeria is not the regimented underworld that the U.N. summit’s language implied.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026

"It was such a good team to be part of. Flower and Strauss were tough, and that regime was very regimented, but we had the time of our lives there."

From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2025

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

From Salon ● Apr. 2, 2025

"I feel when I am boxed into a regimented way then I am not able to express myself in the same way," Raducanu told Sky Sports.

From BBC ● Mar. 25, 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