Sergeant

How to spell sergeant

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sergeant

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sergeant mean?

1. nounA non-commissioned officer in the army or a supervising officer in a police force, ranking above a corporal or constable.

Sergeant in a sentence

• The sergeant ordered the recruits to assemble at dawn.

• A desk sergeant took the witness statement at the station.

Where does sergeant come from?

Language of origin: French

This word comes from the Latin servientem, the present participle of servire, which meant 'to serve' or 'to be a servant'. In medieval Old French this became sergent, meaning a servant, an attendant, or a common soldier who served under a knight. English borrowed it in the 1100s, at first simply for a servant or officer, before the sense narrowed to a non-commissioned military rank above a corporal and later to a police rank. The spelling preserves the old French shape with its silent stretch, even though English speakers say it as 'sar-junt', and that gap between sound and spelling is exactly the trap: the first syllable sounds like 'sar' but is written 'ser', and the ending is 'geant', not 'gent'. The same servire root survives in the everyday words 'servant', 'service' and 'sergeant' alike.

How the word is built

• serg- (from Latin serviens: serving, a servant)
• -eant (noun ending via Old French)