Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
first lieutenant

first lieutenant

4 5.3
A military officer who is one rank below a captain
  • noun
  • /ˈfɜrst luˈtɛnənt/
  • Jargon
translation icon : teniente primero
  • Everybody got to be a first lieutenant after eighteen months of commissioned service, which meant he had about ten days before that happened.

Sarah Kellen was, she was like Maxwell's first Lieutenant and she did everything that Maxwell did.

Examples

  • The first lieutenant seemed to be the highest-ranking officer around.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • If you lived to serve twelve months as a first lieutenant, then promotion was automatic.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • "The first lieutenant set off for Engineering.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Then the war was over, and there were a lot of former first lieutenants.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • That left Archie as the senior first lieutenant in the squadron.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • He wondered if the first lieutenant had changed his mind.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • George Davenport arrived in Vietnam in June 1966 as a first lieutenant with the Army Corps of Engineers.

    Academic text (2011)

  • The first lieutenant, who still seemed to be the ranking officer at the crossroads, let out a whoop.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • In February 1891, Hale was promoted to first lieutenant after an examination before a board of officers at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

    Academic text (2008)

  • After finishing first in his class, he became a first lieutenant in the Missouri National Guard in St. Louis.

Synonyms

lieutenant
vsfirst lieutenant
  • Specialized
614 5.8

An officer in the armed forces who is below a captain and often commands a small unit

is specific to the army air force and marines for that commissioned rank
1st lieutenant
vsfirst lieutenant
  • US
5.8

An officer in the Army, Air Force or Marines who ranks above a second lieutenant and below a captain

is the full words form used in formal contexts

How Senior

colonel
208 7.7
major
  • Specialized
922 4.9
captain
247 2.9
first lieutenant
  • Jargon
4 5.3

Surface Forms

first lieutenant singular
first lieutenants plural

Morphology

first + lieutenant

The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'first' (higher/preceding) + 'lieutenant' (a military rank): a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes the lieutenant who ranks above a second lieutenant. This follows a regular ordinal + rank pattern found cross-linguistically, so the sense is immediately predictable to B1 learners.

Etymology

The military rank first lieutenant comes from the word lieutenant, which originally meant someone who 'stands in' for a higher officer. Adding first showed the 'first' or main helper among lieutenants, so the first lieutenant is the senior assistant to a captain and ranks above a second lieutenant.