adjutant

noun

ad·ju·tant ˈa-jə-tənt

: a staff officer in the army, air force, or marine corps who assists the commanding officer and is responsible especially for correspondence

: one who helps : assistant

Examples of adjutant in a Sentence

the senator's adjutants and aides always arrive ahead of him on the campaign trail

Recent Examples on the Web His first innovation, suggested by the director and Factory adjutant Paul Morrissey, was to add the German chanteuse Nico to the Velvets’ lineup. —

Jeremy Lybarger, The New Republic, 17 Oct. 2023 In postwar court documents he is referred to as Arājs’s adjutant. —

Fintan O’Toole, The New York Review of Books, 20 July 2023 Born May 13, 1930, in Springfield, Massachusetts, Gravel served in the US Army as an adjutant in the Communications Intelligence Service in Germany and a special agent in the Counter Intelligence Corps in France from 1951 to 1954, according to a biography on his website. —

Chandelis Duster, CNN, 27 June 2021 Cindy Suchan, chair of the Memorial Day parade committee and president of the Hudson American Legion Auxiliary, and Jim Garrison, former adjutant of the Hudson Lee-Bishop American Legion Post 464, participated in shutting off the sound during the speech. —

Cameron Fields, cleveland, 8 June 2021 The album was created, and later discarded in 1945, by Auschwitz adjutant Karl Höcker, who’s a smiling presence in virtually every photo. —

Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Aug. 2022 The National Guard soldiers, the captain, and the general’s adjutant were sleeping off in the distance. —

Vladimir Sorokin, Harper’s Magazine , 20 July 2022 While in the service, he was stationed at Fort Devens, in Ayer, Massachusetts, as an adjutant to Gen. Phillip Davidson, who was in charge of the Army Security Agency School there. —

Frederick N. Rasmussen, Baltimore Sun, 10 July 2022 Middletown’s Post 583 is a consolidation completed this year of another city post and the Middlefield-Rockfall post, current Post 583 adjutant Michael Rogalsky said. —

Jesse Leavenworth, courant.com, 18 Nov. 2021 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'adjutant.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Latin adjūtant-, adjūtans, present participle of adjūtāre "to help," probably after Spanish ayudante "assistant, aide, officer appointed as an aide" (noun derivative of present participle of ayudar "to help, aid," going back to Latin adjūtāre) — more at aid entry 1

First Known Use

1539, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler

The first known use of adjutant was in 1539

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