Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
Unknown Soldier

Unknown Soldier

4 6.3
A soldier who died in war whose name cannot be found and who stands for all war dead
  • noun
  • /ʌnˈnoʊn ˈsoʊldʒər/
  • Formal
translation icon : Soldado Desconocido
  • Well, she wanted to meet me, at the Arc de Triomph, right by the Shrine for the Unknown Soldier.
  • tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Oh, so Trump took a shit on the grave of the unknown soldier.

Examples

  • I used to work with a guy who was a guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

    Blog text (26)

  • The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier honors those who died without being identified.

  • After having a quick read, I also noticed that the U.S. Unknown Soldier was given the Victoria Cross.

    Blog text (26)

  • The U.S. has the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to recognize the missing in wars.

    Academic text (2008)

  • We just made a quick pit stop at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and watched the changing of the guards.

  • An American serviceman who died there took his place today in a place of honor, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

    Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985)

  • And finally, like us, Ukraine has a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and an eternal flame nearby.

    Blog text (10)

  • They even have an appointment to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

    Blog text (3)

  • In another, soldiers guarded Arlington National Cemetery's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under a haze of rain.

    Blog text (21)

  • One of Duga's earliest parades was the procession that preceded the internment of the Vietnam War Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

    Academic text (2015)

Surface Forms

Unknown Soldier singular
Unknown Soldiers plural

Morphology

unknown + soldier

The meaning is compositionally transparent: 'unknown' + 'soldier' straightforwardly denotes a soldier whose identity is not known. While the specific commemorative/symbolic use (e.g. a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier) involves cultural knowledge, the basic referent is directly derivable by a B1 learner who knows both words and many languages have an equivalent construction.

Etymology

The name Unknown Soldier comes from a practice after big wars of burying one soldier whose name was unknown in a special tomb. People would bring flowers and hold ceremonies at that grave. That's why the Unknown Soldier now means 'a symbol for all soldiers who died without a name'.