Special Forces
59
3.4
- noun
- /ˈspɛʃəl ˈfɔrsɪz/
- US
:
fuerzas especiales
- Another Barzani son is the commander of the Special Forces.
- Special Forces operations
- Special Forces raids
- a Special Forces unit
This is the opportunity for the Special Forces to get rid of you.
- This is the opportunity for the Special Forces to get rid of you.
- And it just so happens they're all ex special forces as well, you know?
- And that's what the Special Forces taught me as well.
- He was a Australian Special Forces soldier.
- I applied for the Special Forces because I was fast tracking in promotion.
- But for some reasons the UK special Forces works and is without doubt the best in the world.
- So guys were all over the place training other nationals, having worked with other special forces teams in different countries.
- We don't have any of those, but we have special forces troops in Syria, quote, to protect the oil fields.
- Then what happened was I got a phone call from a department in the Special Forces that deals with people that are going into the media world.
- Well, maybe that's a good opportunity to ask you guys about, you know, the experience of of being in the armed forces, you know, being part of special forces.
- The training group, you know, is a part of special forces and really how many?
Examples
-
He was a Australian Special Forces soldier.
-
We can have special forces up there on site within six hours.
-
In the afternoon, a Special Forces team shows up to make a fourth assault on the hole.
Fiction book (1993) -
And under certain circumstances, the United States government may be put in an embarrassing position should members of special forces be captured or killed.
-
He was a commander of an elite special forces unit.
-
William T. Hathaway is a Special Forces veteran, peace writer, and activist.
Academic text (2007) -
Couple of weeks ago, U.S. Special Forces uncovered a plot to smuggle a dirty bomb out of Morocco.
-
Wade derived personal satisfaction from performing his duty as a Special Forces A-team member.
Academic text (2001) -
British and American special forces worked behind enemy lines to seek out and destroy Iraqi missile launchers.
Academic text (2002) -
The U.S. Special Forces conducted a successful operation to rescue hostages held by terrorists.
Synonyms
1
4.4
Highly trained soldiers who do secret, dangerous missions for the United States Army
1
4.4
A group in the United States Army trained to do secret and dangerous missions
How Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and compositionally derivable from 'special' (not ordinary, specialized) + 'force' (a trained group or military unit): a force with special training or tasks. This construction is cross-linguistically common (e.g. Spanish 'Fuerzas Especiales', French 'Forces Spéciales'), so an average B1 learner who knows the constituents will likely infer the intended military sense.
Etymology
Special Forces comes from the idea that a small military force is chosen to do special jobs others do not do. Picture a small team trained for secret or dangerous tasks, and that is why the name means 'elite troops' used for unusual or difficult operations today.