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A wise man named Huey Lewis once sang that “it’s hip to be square.” As lexicographers—a hip cadre if ever there was one—we heartily agree with this sentiment, not least because the song (as performed by Lewis and his trusted cadre of bandmates dubbed “the News”) prompts us to ponder an etymological descendent (via French and Italian) of the Latin word for square, quadrum: cadre. Squares being a logical and standard shape for frames (as of window and picture varieties), it’s easy to understand why French speakers and later English speakers adopted cadre as a word meaning “frame.” A sense of cadre referring to a metaphorical framework for something (such as a novel or curriculum) soon developed. And if you consider a group of officers in a military regiment as the framework that holds things together for the unit, you’ll understand how yet another sense of cadre, referring to a nucleus of trained personnel, arose. Military leaders and their troops are well-trained and work together as a unified team, which may explain why cadre is now sometimes used more generally to refer to any group of people who have some kind of unifying characteristic—such as a belief in the heart of rock and roll, or perhaps the power of love.
Examples of cadre in a Sentence
Mohammed R. Mhawish, New Yorker, 14 Oct. 2025
Her grandmother, Kitty’s sister Joan Vandermolen, rushed to Los Angeles to be by Erik and Lyle’s side, joining a growing cadre of aunts, uncles and cousins forming a protective bubble around the brothers.
—Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN Money, 12 Oct. 2025
After years of advocating to expand private and religious education and homeschooling, using tax dollars, a cadre of conservative activists is in a position to push forward its agenda.
—Megan O’Matz, ProPublica, 10 Oct. 2025
In the early nineties, the halcyon days of mountain biking, a cadre of American cyclists competed all over the world on these glorious if archaic machines.
—Frederick Dreier, Outside, 6 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cadre
Cite this Entry
“Cadre.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cadre. Accessed 18 Oct. 2025.
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