echelon

[ esh-uh-lon ]
See synonyms for: echelonechelons on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. a level of command, authority, or rank: After years of service, she is now in the upper echelon of city officials.

  2. a level of worthiness, achievement, or reputation: studying hard to get into one of the top echelon colleges.

  1. Military. a formation of troops, ships, airplanes, etc., in which groups of soldiers or individual vehicles or craft are arranged in parallel lines, either with each line extending to the right of the one in front (right echelon ) or with each line extending to the left of the one in front (left echelon ), so that the whole presents the appearance of steps.

  2. Military. one of the groups of a formation so arranged.

  3. Archaic. any structure or group of structures arranged in a steplike form.

  4. Also called echelon grating. Spectroscopy. a diffraction grating that is used in the resolution of fine structure lines and consists of a series of plates of equal thickness stacked in staircase fashion.

verb (used with or without object)
  1. to form in an echelon.

Origin of echelon

1
First recorded in 1790–1800; from French échelon, originally “rung of a ladder,” from Old French eschelon, equivalent to esch(i)ele “ladder” (from Latin scāla + -on noun suffix; see scale3)

word story For echelon

Echelon comes from the French échelon, a word whose literal meaning is “rung of a ladder.” Initially it was confined to military use, to refer to a step-like formation of troops.
Ironically, while echelon entered English in a military context, it was the first and second World Wars that extended the meaning to other, nonmilitary, sectors. During World War I, the term took on a more generalized sense of a “level” or “subdivision”; World War II broadened echelon’s usage to describe grades and ranks in professions outside the military.
At the same time, English speakers started using echelon to classify institutions or persons they held in high esteem by referring to them as part of the “upper” or “top” echelon. With this in mind, the phrase “social climber” conjures up the image of people who wish to ascend through the various ladder rungs of society until they reach the top.

Other words for echelon

Other words from echelon

  • ech·e·lon·ment, noun

Words Nearby echelon

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use echelon in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for echelon

echelon

/ (ˈɛʃəˌlɒn) /


noun
  1. a level of command, responsibility, etc (esp in the phrase the upper echelons)

  2. military

    • a formation in which units follow one another but are offset sufficiently to allow each unit a line of fire ahead

    • a group formed in this way

  1. physics a type of diffraction grating used in spectroscopy consisting of a series of plates of equal thickness arranged stepwise with a constant offset

verb
  1. to assemble in echelon

Origin of echelon

1
C18: from French échelon, literally: rung of a ladder, from Old French eschiele ladder, from Latin scāla; see scale ³

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012