Definition of major general
: a commissioned officer in the army, air force, or marine corps who ranks above a brigadier general and whose insignia is two stars
Examples of major general in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web Walter Givhan: Retired Air Force major general and senior vice chancellor for Advancement and Economic Development at Troy University.
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Mike Cason | Mcason@al.com, al, "Panel to recommend what to do with Alabama’s old prisons," 22 Sep. 2020 In January, Acronym promoted a clip of Fox News host Tucker Carlson blasting the president for the killing of Iranian major general Qasem Soleimani.
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Arielle Pardes, Wired, "The Facebook Defectors Turning Trump’s Strategy Against Him," 15 Sep. 2020 Out of 60 Marine generals currently, five brigadier generals and one major general are Black.
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USA Today, "Where are the Black officers? US Army shows diversity in its ranks but few promotions to the top," 1 Sep. 2020 Normally an Army division is headed by a two-star major general, but on rare occasions one-star brigadier generals can be put in command.
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Lolita C. Baldor, Star Tribune, "Fort Hood commander's transfer on hold amid investigations," 7 Aug. 2020 In addition to receiving the high rank of major general Pearson is the only pilot on Earth known to have shot down a satellite in orbit.
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Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "35 Years Ago, a U.S. F-15 Blasted an Orbiting Satellite to Smithereens," 8 July 2020 The chapter’s namesake, Nathan Bedford Forrest, was a Confederate major general who led troops in the 1864 Fort Pillow Massacre, during which upwards of 200 Black soldiers were killed.
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Lydia Gerike, The Indianapolis Star, "Hendricks County Democratic Party chair resigns over Confederacy organization membership," 10 July 2020 He was appointed by Confederate President Jefferson Davis, his West Point classmate and friend, to be a major general, in the hopes that his knowledge of the Mississippi Valley terrain would be an asset in the war.
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Anna Mulrine Grobe, The Christian Science Monitor, "‘The time has come’: Which US bases may lose their Confederate namesakes?," 18 June 2020 McConnell said nobody was aware the base was named after John Brown Gordon, a major general in the Confederate Army.
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Susan Ferrechio, Washington Examiner, "McConnell 'OK' with stripping Confederate names from military bases," 16 June 2020
See MoreThese example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'major general.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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Time Traveler for major general
The first known use of major general was in 1633
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