Deployment

How to spell deployment

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce deployment

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does deployment mean?

1. nounThe act of moving, arranging, or putting something into effective action or position, such as troops, staff, or resources.

Deployment in a sentence

• The soldier returned home after a six-month deployment overseas.

• The company scheduled the software deployment for the weekend to limit disruption.

Where does deployment come from?

Language of origin: French

This word descends from the French verb deployer, meaning 'to unfold' or 'to spread out', which itself goes back to the Latin displicare, built from dis- 'apart' and plicare 'to fold'. The literal image is of folding cloth being opened out flat, and that picture survives in the military sense of spreading troops across a field of battle. English borrowed the verb 'deploy' in the eighteenth century, largely as a term of warfare, and the noun 'deployment' followed soon after to name the act of arranging or stationing forces. Over time the meaning broadened well beyond armies, so today we deploy software, resources, staff, and arguments. The same plicare root that means 'fold' also gives us 'reply', 'imply', and 'complicated', words that all carry a hidden sense of folding together or apart.

How the word is built

• de- (apart, away)
• ploy (from Latin plicare: to fold)
• -ment (noun suffix denoting action or result)