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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
Paul Vallas, Chicago Tribune, 20 June 2025
The ruling blocked an April 8 order by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden that found that the news wire’s exclusion from the press pool, a small cadre of reporters reporting on the president’s whereabouts, was unlawful.
—Filip Timotija, The Hill, 7 June 2025
The exception is a small cadre of engineers, developers, architects, appliance manufacturers, energy efficiency, solar and climate advocates and other parties with a direct financial or ideological interest in the way new things get built.
—Ben Christopher, Mercury News, 16 May 2025
The cadre who raised their hands to opt out includes both principal cast and ensemble members, the outlet reports.
—Anna Kaufman, USA Today, 9 May 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 6 Jul. 2025.
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