military

synonyms, antonyms, definitions, examples & translations of military in English

English Online Dictionary. What means military‎? What does military mean?

English

From Middle English militari, from Old French militaire, from Latin mīlitāris, from mīles (“soldier”). Doublet of militaire.

military (not generally comparable, comparative more military, superlative most military)

Characteristic of members of the armed forces.
(Canada, US) Relating to armed forces such as the army, marines, navy and air force (often as distinguished from civilians or police forces).
Relating to war.
Relating to armies or ground forces.

In modern usage, the adjective military is usually hypernymous to the adjective naval, but in properly understanding older texts—for example, when dealing with military history, the sociology of armed forces (including interservice rivalries), and so on—it is useful to know that the adjectives military and naval have often been used as coordinate terms, especially in the past, with military corresponding to an army (land forces) as distinguished from a navy (naval/maritime forces). By corollary, mentions of military science have sometimes been intended as coordinate with, rather than hypernymous to, mentions of naval science, although that coordinate sense is dated. An example of its fossilization is that it remains reflected in classes U and V of the taxonomy of the U.S. Library of Congress Classification for library science.