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army officer

army officer

9 2.8
A person who leads soldiers and has power to give orders in the army
  • noun
  • /ˈɑrmi ˈɔfɪsər/
translation icon : oficial del ejército
  • The army officer gave clear instructions to the new recruits during their training.
  • senior army officer
  • regular army officer
  • former army officer

As far as the experience I've had since I've left the farm, I've been an Army officer and deployed to Iraq.

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Examples

  • Canada had only about 7,000 army officers on strength in 1939.

    Academic text (1995)
  • Why was the Union army officer going to meet with the conspirators?

    Fiction book (1992)
  • Are you an army officer?

  • The office is empty; only a few army officers remain.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • When she reached the Suburban, an army officer extended his hand.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • The same could be said of the handful of Canadian professional army officers.

    Academic text (1995)
  • There's an army officer in the other car.

  • For the first time, a high-ranking army officer may soon be tried for this crime.

    Blog text (19)
  • Spoken like a true army officer.

  • I accepted Islam a year ago while I was an army officer stationed in Somaliland.

    Blog text (26)

Synonyms

officer
vsarmy officer
2.4

A person in the army, navy, or air force who gives orders

is specific to the land forces rather than other armed services
military officer
vsarmy officer
38 3.2

A person in charge of soldiers who gives orders and leads them

is specific to the land forces rather than other armed services

How Senior

general
636 4.2
senior
800 2.9
army officer
9 2.8
junior
99 2.4

Surface Forms

army officer singular
army officers plural

Morphology

army + officer

The meaning 'a person who holds a position of authority in the army' is directly and compositionally derived from 'army' (land forces) + 'officer' (person holding military rank). There is no idiomatic or metaphorical shift and similar constructions exist cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

The noun army officer comes from two simple words: army (a group of soldiers) and officer (someone with an official role who gives orders). Imagine a person in uniform standing before troops and giving orders; that clear image explains why it means 'a person who is in charge in the army'.