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lieutenant

nounadjectivetop 1 000 in film dialogue

  • United Kingdom
  • Australia
  • United States
  • Canada

The lowest junior commissioned officer rank(s) in many military forces, often Army and Marines. In the US Army, Air Force and Marines, holding the rank above second lieutenant and below captain. Both ranks may be referred to as "lieutenant" or as the complete forms of the ranks.

noun

  1. 1

    The lowest junior commissioned officer rank(s) in many military forces, often Army and Marines. In the US Army, Air Force and Marines, holding the rank above second lieutenant and below captain. Both ranks may be referred to as "lieutenant" or as the complete forms of the ranks.

  2. 2

    The lowest junior commissioned officer rank(s) in many military forces, often Army and Marines. A naval officer whose rank is above that of ensign in the United States Navy and below that of a lieutenant commander. There are two ranks of lieutenant: lieutenant junior grade and lieutenant.

  3. 3

    The lowest junior commissioned officer rank(s) in many military forces, often Army and Marines. A commissioned officer in the United States Coast Guard, Public Health Service, or National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration whose rank is above that of ensign and below lieutenant commander. There are two ranks of lieutenant: lieutenant junior grade and lieutenant.

  4. 4

    The lowest junior commissioned officer rank(s) in many military forces, often Army and Marines. A commissioned officer in the British Army and Royal Marines, holding the rank above second lieutenant and below captain. Both ranks may be referred to as "lieutenant"; however, "second lieutenant" is to specify that the officer is not yet a full lieutenant.

  5. 5

    The lowest junior commissioned officer rank(s) in many military forces, often Army and Marines. A naval officer whose rank is above that of sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy and below that of a lieutenant commander.

  6. 6

    The lowest junior commissioned officer rank(s) in many military forces, often Army and Marines. A naval commissioned officer who holds the rank above sub-lieutenant and below lieutenant commander.

  7. 7

    A person who manages or executes the plans and directives of another, more senior person; a manager to their director.

    Mr. Scott immediately asked someone at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash., to get Mr. Nadella, the chief executive, out of a meeting he was having with top lieutenants.

  8. 8

    The second-in-command (2IC) of a group.

Etymology

From Middle English lieutenant, lieftenaunt, from Anglo-Norman lieutenant, lyutenaunt, leu tenant, leu tenaunt (“deputy, lieutenant”), from Old French lieu (“place”) + tenant (“holder”). Doublet of locum tenens and stadtholder.

adjective

  1. 1

    A military grade that is junior to the grade the adjective modifies: lieutenant colonel, lieutenant general, lieutenant commander.

Forms

plural
lieutenants
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).