Platoon

How to spell platoon

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce platoon

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does platoon mean?

1. nounA small body of soldiers, typically a subdivision of a company commanded by a lieutenant.

Platoon in a sentence

• The lieutenant ordered his platoon to hold the ridge until dawn.

• Each platoon in the company trained separately before the joint exercise.

Where does platoon come from?

Language of origin: French

This word comes from the French peloton, which literally meant 'a little ball' and by extension 'a small cluster or knot of people'. That French word was a diminutive of pelote, meaning 'ball', which itself traces back to the Latin pila, the word for a ball used in games. English soldiers and writers borrowed the term in the seventeenth century, around the 1630s, originally for a small body of troops that fired together. Over time it settled into its modern military sense of a subdivision of a company, usually led by a lieutenant. The same Latin pila that gave us a ball also lies behind 'pellet', so the spelling trap to remember is that platoon began life as a small ball of men, with one t and a rounded double o in the middle.

How the word is built

• platoon (from French peloton: a little ball, hence a small cluster of soldiers)
• no English suffix; note the single -t- and the doubled -oo-