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English colonel is pronounced the same as kernel. This seems odd, but there is an explanation. In many languages when a word contains two identical or similar sounds, one of these sounds will often change over a period of time. This kind of change is called dissimilation. So when the Italian word colonello was taken into French, it became coronel; and the word was borrowed by the English from the French in this form. Later the spelling colonel came to be used in order to reflect the Italian origin of the word. But by then the pronunciation with r was well established.
Examples of colonel in a Sentence
Elizabeth D. Samet, Foreign Affairs, 29 Oct. 2025
Villegas was a member of the elite presidential honor guard and colonel in the Venezuelan air force.
—Joshua Goodman, Fortune, 28 Oct. 2025
One of their leaders, a colonel of the Russian National Guard named Sergei Dovgan, began to act as the commandant of the surrounding town.
—Simon Shuster, Time, 23 Oct. 2025
Suddenly, Lockjaw, now a colonel, is motivated to capture Willa and hunt down Bob, and the rest of the film involves the motives for his pursuit, the efforts of Bob and Willa to evade capture, their resulting separation, and their daring struggle to reunite.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Colonel.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/colonel. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
an altered form of earlier coronel "colonel," from early French coronel (same meaning), from early Italian colonnello "colonel, column of soldiers," derived from Latin columna "column" — related to column
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