cadre

noun

cad·​re ˈka-ˌdrā  ˈkä- 

-drē;

 especially British  ˈkä-də,

ˈkā-,

-drə

1

: a nucleus or core group especially of trained personnel able to assume control and to train others

broadly : a group of people having some unifying relationship

a cadre of lawyers

a cadre of technicians

2

: a cell of indoctrinated leaders active in promoting the interests of a revolutionary party

3

: a member of a cadre

4

: frame, framework

… the current specialisms and cadres of our university curricula …

—H. M. McLuhan

Did you know?

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.

Synonyms

• architecture
• armature
• configuration
• edifice
• fabric
• frame
• framework
• framing
• infrastructure
• shell
• skeleton
• structure

Examples of cadre in a Sentence

claims that the problem will never be solved within the existing cadre of the state bureaucracy

Recent Examples on the Web

During his waning years and then following his death in 1969, party leadership was assumed by a cadre of communist officers who proved to be some of the most able military minds of the modern era. —Nick Hilden, Washington Post, 14 Apr. 2024

Local media were provided detailed briefings by party cadres typically schooled in deep secrecy. —Charlie Campbell, TIME, 12 Apr. 2024

When the group finally finds Jessie, she is being held at gunpoint with another journalist in an open field by a small cadre of militiamen who have been dumping dead bodies from a truck into a crude mass grave. —Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 12 Apr. 2024

Their homes were searched March 27 by a cadre of San Jose Police Department officers following an investigation by burglary detectives, police said. —Robert Salonga, The Mercury News, 2 Apr. 2024

Both won the support of cadres of young people opposed to the war. —David Jackson, USA TODAY, 16 Mar. 2024

The cadre of mostly anonymous personalities who wage near-constant battle in Mr. Trump’s name focused first on brutally attacking Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who had been considered the former president’s most potent rival in the 2024 Republican primary. —Ken Bensinger, New York Times, 22 Feb. 2024

The strong quarter for all three indexes extends gains in the final months of 2023, when a cadre of Big Tech stocks, dubbed the Magnificent Seven, pulled the market higher. —Aaron Gregg, Washington Post, 28 Mar. 2024

The margins have moved closer to the center, thanks in no small measure to the cadre of alternative weeklies that for generations called attention to what the media were leaving out. —Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 19 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

French, from Italian quadro, from Latin quadrum square — more at quarrel

First Known Use

1763, in the meaning defined at sense 4

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