echelon
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈɛʃəˌlɒn/
- Specialized
:
rejilla escalonada
- If the attacker used some of its first-echelon missiles to strike the victim's second-echelon forces, then the aggressor would expose additional cities to retaliation by the victim's first-echelon forces.
Examples
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A golden tendril was stretched out from the guardian computer under the surface of Mars and wrapped around the head of the Airlia who had awakened the first echelon and sent them off in their talon of ships toward Earth.
Fiction book (1999) -
These first-echelon ICBMs can be brought to launch-ready status in a matter of hours; for example, maintenance crews would reenter missile silos to activate the launch circuits.
Academic text (2010) -
It's not in its R form and its echelon form, but it's a lot closer.
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It's called the row reduced echelon form of the matrix.
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It should remind you of something like reducing reducing a matrix to reduce echelon forms.
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Two hundred and fifteen days of rear echelon, non-potable water distro.
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The "second echelon" of de-alerted nuclear forces consists of a more diverse set of nuclear weapons, with equal numbers of warheads on each side but with asymmetry in the types of weapons.
Academic text (2010) -
The researchers used an echelon grating to analyze the spectrum of the distant star.
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This experiment relies on a precise echelon design to successfully measure the wavelengths of light.
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The echelon arrangement of the plates allows for clear diffraction patterns in the laboratory.
Synonyms
1
8.7
A piece of glass or metal with many fine lines that splits light into colors
A tool scientists use to split light into thin colour lines for study
A flat piece with many close lines that splits light into colors
An instrument that uses a prism to split light into separate colors for study
Surface Forms
Etymology
Echelon comes from French échelon, originally meaning a 'rung' or 'step' of a ladder (from Latin scala 'ladder'). Imagine the plates stacked like ladder steps that shift the light a little at each step, so the grating's stepped shape is why an echelon separates light into different colours.