Brigadier

How to spell brigadier

9 letters · 3 syllables

26 of the 44 people asked to spell brigadier in Spelling Garden got it wrong the first time.

The most common mistake is brigadeer. The letters people get wrong are highlighted.

brigadeer brigadier

What people typed instead

• brigadeer5 people
• brigadere5 people

How to pronounce brigadier

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does brigadier mean?

1. nounA senior army officer ranking above a colonel and commanding a brigade.

Brigadier in a sentence

• The brigadier reviewed the troops before the parade.

• After years of service she was promoted to brigadier.

Where does brigadier come from?

Language of origin: French

The word arrived in English in the early 1600s straight from French, where brigadier meant an officer in charge of a brigade. That French word was built on brigade, a body of troops, which French had itself taken from the Italian brigata, meaning a company or crowd. The Italian word came from brigare, 'to fight or contend', and ultimately from briga, meaning 'strife' or 'quarrel'. So the rank quietly preserves the old sense of a band gathered for a fight. The French ending -ier, marking the person who does or commands something, also survives in everyday words like 'cashier' and 'cavalier', and it is exactly that -ier ending, rather than an English -eer, that catches writers out.

How the word is built

• brigad- (from brigade, a body of troops)
• -ier (French agent suffix: one who commands)

People who misspell brigadier also struggle with

Of the Spelling Garden players who got brigadier wrong the first time, this is how many also got each of these wrong.

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