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adjutant general

adjutant general

1 9.5
A senior army officer who manages records and staff and helps the commander
  • noun
  • /ˈædʒʊtənt ˈdʒɛnərəl/
  • Specialized
translation icon : general adjunto
  • Company commanders swamped Gov. Joseph E. Brown and Henry C. Wayne, the state's adjutant general, with requests to be accepted for active duty.
  • assistant adjutant general
  • adjutant general's office
  • state's adjutant general

Examples

  • Maj. Henry Hampton, acting assistant adjutant general of Hardee's corps, recalled, "this was received with enthusiasm among the troops."

    Academic text (2007)
  • The assistant adjutant general attended another mass meeting with approximately six hundred people present.

    Academic text (2000)
  • As early as January 1863, he wrote to the adjutant general for clarification of his status in the event of a federal raid.

    Academic text (2007)
  • He served as Maine's adjutant general as well as commissioner of the Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management.

    Blog text (34)
  • In 1886, Gov. John B. Gordon appointed Kell adjutant general for the state of Georgia.

    Academic text (2009)
  • Ingram, a former adjutant general in charge of the National Guard in North Carolina who was deployed to the Balkans twice in the late 1990s, has had a front-row seat to the Guard's transformation.

    Blog text (30)
  • The adjutant general oversees the administrative functions of the army during operations.

  • As the adjutant general, he is responsible for coordinating support between the troops and command.

  • The role of the adjutant general includes managing personnel and logistics for military missions.

Synonyms

chief of staff
vsadjutant general
172 5.2

A senior military officer who leads a branch and manages its operations and administration

assists a commanding officer and handles overall army administration

How Senior

chief of staff
172 5.2
adjutant general
  • Specialized
1 9.5
adjutant
  • Specialized
7 9.0
aide
  • Formal
365 3.5
assistant
833 1.0

Surface Forms

Morphology

adjutant + general

Both constituents are semantically clear: 'adjutant' denotes an administrative assistant officer and 'general' denotes a senior officer, so the compound denotes a senior/administrative officer. The role is a straightforward compositional title (role + rank) common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both words would likely infer the meaning.

Etymology

Adjutant general comes from two words: adjutant, a word that meant 'to help', and general, meaning 'chief' for the whole army. Put together, the name paints the picture of the army's main helper who runs orders and paperwork, so today an adjutant general is the senior officer in charge of administration.