Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
Peace Corps

Peace Corps

40 3.4
A United States government program that sends volunteers to help people in other countries
  • noun
  • /piːs kɔːrz/
translation icon : Cuerpo de Paz
  • Youssouf Traor, a Peace Corps volunteer, demonstrates a nut shelter in the village of Niagadina, Mali.
  • Peace Corps volunteer
  • join the Peace Corps
  • serve in the Peace Corps

I always thought that people who were in the Peace Corps could not work for intelligence agencies.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • AmeriCorps, the domestic Peace Corps, engages 40,000 people of all ages in intensive, results-driven service each year.

    Academic text (1998)

  • I first arrived in Southeast Asia in 1968 as a Peace Corps volunteer in southern Thailand.

    Academic text (1990)

  • We did some time in the Peace Corps together.

    Second Act (2018)

  • Yes, I was in the Peace Corps.

    Playing Mona Lisa (2000)

  • When I left the Peace Corps, I had no clear idea where life would take me.

    Academic text (1995)

  • I was thinking about joining the Peace Corps.

    Igby Goes Down (2002)

  • As many of you know, Blair has joined... the Peace Corps.

    Christmas with the Kranks (2004)

  • I first experienced such a storm while serving in the Peace Corps in Niger in 1986.

    Academic text (2002)

  • Nathaniel Brodie served in the Peace Corps from 2004 to 2006.

    Academic text (2007)

  • After graduating from college, I decided to join the Peace Corps to help communities in Africa.

Surface Forms

Peace Corps singular
Peace Corpses plural

Morphology

peace + corps

A learner who knows 'peace' (the goal) and 'corps' (a body or group working together) can readily infer that 'Peace Corps' is a group or organization concerned with peace, so the basic idea is transparent. However, the specific institutional facts — that it is a U.S. government volunteer program that sends volunteers abroad to promote development — are not derivable from the constituents and require world‑knowledge, so the expression is only partially predictable.

Etymology

Peace Corps comes from the two words peace and corps. A corps is a group of people sent together. The United States set up this group to send 'volunteers' abroad to 'help' people and build 'friendship', so the name shows the group's purpose today.