Make Your Point > Archived Issues > BATTALION

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pronounce BATTALION: Say it "buh TAL yun." To hear it, click here. connect this word to others: Oh, man. This line from Hamilton cracks me up, and I hear it every time I see the word battalion: So, clearly, a battalion is a group of armed fighters. See if you can recall a few figurative synonyms of battalion: 1. A le____ is any vast, overwhelming amount of people or things, one that reminds you of an army. 2. A pha____ is any powerful, tightly-organized group of people or things, one that reminds you of an orderly, well-armed array of soldiers. (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) definition: Our word "battalion" traces back to a Latin one meaning "to beat," so it's cousins with words like "bat," "batter," and of course, "battle." A battalion, literally speaking, is a large group of soldiers. And figuratively speaking, a battalion is any large group of things that reminds you of a group of powerful, organized soldiers. grammatical bits: Part of speech: Noun, the countable kind: "a battalion of experienced fighters;" "She commands a battalion of fans." Other forms:  The only other common one is just the plural, "battalions." Some of the rare ones are fun. You can talk about people battalioning, or describe people or groups as battalioned (arranged in battalions) or battailous (ready to fight). (Nope, not a typo: that last one, "battailous," has the odd spelling because it came through Old French.) how to use it: We often use "battalion" in a straightforward way, talking about police battalions, volunteer battalions, Marine battalions, etc. Here's the New York Times: "a battalion of Kurdish women fighting the Islamic State." And we use "battalion" figuratively to emphasize how a group is impressively organized, powerful, and numerous, and, if not actually violent, awfully fired up, perhaps in anger or just enthusiasm. Talk about a battalion of people or things: a battalion of experts, of scientists, of cheerleaders, of Twitter followers; a battalion of desserts at the bake sale, a battalion of features in the new photo editing software, a battalion of colorful booths at the comic book convention, etc. To make an even more dramatic point, use the plural noun: battalions of troubles, worries, or sorrows; battalions of insects or dust bunnies; battalions of fans or worshippers, etc. examples: "Even the birds are audible this time of morning, when the city's battalions of car horns offer only groggy competition and winter fog pales the five-star hotels along the shore."    — Vivian Yee, New York Times, 2 January 2021 "Already, all over Britain and the US, battalions of loud, unsophisticated moviegoers are showing up at screenings of A Quiet Place and munching on snacks as if they were famished sows."    — Joe Queenan, The Guardian, 12 April 2018 has this page helped you understand "battalion"? Awesome, I'm glad it helped! Thanks for letting me know! If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. study it: Explain the meaning of "battalion" without saying "army" or "horde." try it out: A food writer for the New York Times mentioned "the typical battalion of condiments that Filipino diners use to recalibrate each dish to their taste." By picking the word "battalion" (instead of, say, "stockpile" or "assortment"), this writer implied that the condiments are numerous, organized, impressive, and powerful. With these condiments in mind as an example, talk about a group of things in your own home or workplace that you might describe as a battalion. Condiments, ingredients, tools, cosmetics, or gardening implements, maybe? If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.) before you review, play: Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out. Our game for January is "Find the Missing Link." In each chain of words, find the one that's missing from the middle. This missing link, according to a thesaurus, is a synonym of each word on its left and right. But as you'll see, the words on the left and right are most definitely not synonyms!  For example, if I give you "special → _____ → typical," then you answer, "peculiar," because sometimes "peculiar" means "special, different, odd," but other times it means "typical of this, specific to this, distinctively this."  To see the answer, scroll all the way down. Your answer might be different from mine but just as good. Enjoy! Try this last one today: spark → _____ → infuriate review this word: 1. A near opposite of BATTALION is A. MINEFIELD. B. LONE FIGHTER. C. ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE. 2. From the Washington Post: "Ceramicist Russell Biles _____ battalions of small figurines, most of them caricatures of people seen recently on TV news programs." A. musters B. concocts C. conjures up Answers to review questions: 1. B 2. A Answer to the game question: spark → incite → infuriate. a final word: I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog:    36 ways to study words.    Why we forget words, & how to remember them.    How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.