Regiment

How to spell regiment

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce regiment

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does regiment mean?

1. nounA permanent military unit, usually commanded by a colonel and made up of several battalions or companies.
2. verbTo organise something or someone according to strict, rigid discipline or system.

Regiment in a sentence

• noun

  His grandfather served in an infantry regiment during the war.

• verb

  The new manager tried to regiment every minute of the working day.

• noun

  The entire regiment paraded through the town square at dawn.

• verb

  Some parents regiment their children's free time too tightly.

Where does regiment come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin regimentum, meaning 'rule' or 'government', which was formed from the verb regere, 'to rule, guide, or direct straight'. That same regere root sits behind a whole family of English words about control and direction, including 'regent', 'regime', 'regular', and even 'rectangle', all carrying the underlying idea of keeping things straight or in order. Regimentum passed through Old French as 'regiment' and entered English in the late 1300s, at first meaning rule or governance in a general sense. By the late 1500s the military meaning had taken over: a regiment became a body of soldiers under a single command, that is, men kept in order and direction. The verb sense, meaning to organise something rigidly, grew naturally from this notion of strict control. The spelling trap is the unstressed middle vowel, written 'i', and the silent feel of '-ment', so writers must remember the reg-I-ment pattern that mirrors regere.

How the word is built

• reg- (from regere: to rule, direct)
• -i- (connecting vowel)
• -ment (noun suffix denoting result or means)