cadet

noun

ca·​det kə-ˈdet 

plural cadets

1

a

: a younger brother or son

b

: youngest son

c

: a younger branch of a family or a member of it

2

a

: a person in training for a military or naval commission

especially : a student in a service academy

b

: a student at a police academy : a person who is in training to become a police officer

During his swearing-in speech last August, the 54-year-old head cop pointed out that he still wears the same size uniform that he wore when he was a cadet at the Police Academy 34 years ago.

—Bernard C. Parks

3

slang : pimp

cadetship

kə-ˈdet-ˌship 

noun

Synonyms of cadet

• pimp

Examples of cadet in a Sentence

the hooker claims she turned all her dough in to her cadet last night

Recent Examples on the Web

The California State University San Marcos Reserve Officers’ Training Corps cadets, Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps cadets from Mission Hills High School, San Marcos High School, Woodland Park Middle School, and Boys and Girl Scout troops will assist with the ceremony. —Linda McIntosh, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Nov. 2025

In the late 1990s, Farzam was a police cadet at the Santa Barbara Police Department. —Ray Sanchez, CNN Money, 2 Nov. 2025

Adams’ car pulls up to the NYPD Academy in Flushing, Queens, where this year’s class of more than 1,000 cadets has assembled in a massive auditorium. —Molly Ball, Time, 29 Oct. 2025

Season 1 also features special appearances by Gina Yashere as Commander Lura Thok and Paul Giamatti playing a Klingon/Tellarite hybrid called Nus Braka, whose backstory might be connected to one of the show's major cadets. —Jeff Spry, Space.com, 13 Oct. 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French, going back to Middle French, borrowed from Gascon (15th-century) capdet "chief, captain" (Old Occitan capdel), going back to Vulgar Latin *capitellus "leader," from Latin capit-, caput "head" + -ellus, diminutive suffix, originally from noun stems ending in -ul-, -r-, and -n- — more at head entry 1

Note: Compare capital entry 3, caudillo. In the fifteenth century the younger sons of Gascon nobles, lacking an inheritance, were recruited into the French army to learn the military profession. In this context the Gascon word was loaned into French, but with the sense "younger son," the characteristic feature of these men to the French, rather than with its Gascon meaning. The Gascon connection was soon lost. The -t of capdet shows the peculiar outcome of Latin geminate -ll- in Gascon. The cluster -pd- was simplified in French to -d-.

First Known Use

1610, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing cadet

• space cadet

Rhymes for cadet

• abet
• asset
• baguette
• banquette
• barbette
• beget
• beset
• brevet
• briquette
• brunet
• brunette
• burette

Kids Definition

cadet

noun

ca·​det kə-ˈdet 

1

: a student military officer

2

: a student at a military school

cadetship

-ˌship 

noun

Etymology

from French cadet "a younger brother or son, one training for military service," derived from Latin capitellum, literally, "little (younger) head or chief," from caput "head" — related to cad, caddie, capital, captain, chief see Word History at caddie