soldier

noun sol·dier \ ˈsōl-jər \

|Updated on: 12 Jun 2018

Examples: soldier in a Sentence

Definition of soldier

1 a : one engaged in military service and especially in the army

b : an enlisted man or woman

c : a skilled warrior

2 : a militant leader, follower, or worker

3 a : one of a caste of wingless sterile termites usually differing from workers in larger size and head and long jaws

b : one of a type of worker ants distinguished by exceptionally large head and jaws

4 play \ˈsō-jər, ˈsōl-\ : one who shirks work

—

soldierly

play \ˈsōl-jər-lē\ adjective or adverb

—

soldiership

play \ˈsōl-jər-ˌship\ noun

See soldier defined for English-language learners

See soldier defined for kids

Examples of soldier in a Sentence

Many soldiers were wounded in combat.
one of the goals of war is to keep as many soldiers as possible from being killed

Recent Examples of soldier from the Web

Israeli officials say soldiers employ only standard weaponry that complies with international laws.

— hanah salah, latimes.com, "Israel shoots to wound, not kill. That has led to a wave of amputations in Gaza," 8 June 2018
Kushner and Verano then compared those success rates with cranial surgeries on soldiers in the American Civil War, which used similar methods.

— lizzie wade, Science | AAAS, "South America’s Inca civilization was better at skull surgery than Civil War doctors," 8 June 2018
The Air Force late last year announced a contest worth as much as $10 billion to supply the next batch of Global Positioning System satellites, which do everything from helping soldiers navigate in the battlefield to getting drivers through traffic.

— anthony capaccio, Bloomberg.com, "Air Force Confident of ‘Fair’ Price for Lockheed GPS Satellites," 8 June 2018
Children burned alive as government soldiers blocked the door of their hut and set it aflame.

— sam mednick, Fox News, "South Sudan's latest civil war atrocities kept out of sight," 7 June 2018
Israel's self-flying 'Cormorant' whisks wounded soldiers to safety Hungry for even more deep-dives on your next favorite topic?

— lauren goode, WIRED, "Amazon's New Fire TV Device Is a Voice-Controlled Cube," 7 June 2018
As many as 1,400 soldiers take part in the spectacle, including 200 horses and an additional 400 musicians banging out parade tunes.

— raisa bruner, Time, "Everything You Need to Know About Trooping the Colour 2018," 7 June 2018
The original plaque, still attached to the monument, recognizes him as a noble patriot, gallant soldier, useful citizen and accomplished gentleman, without mentioning city parks.

— darcy costello, The Courier-Journal, "Castleman group: Louisville art should reflect 'us' not 'some of us'," 7 June 2018
Reid Ashe covered the soldier-sanctuary incident as a reporter for MIT’s student newspaper, The Tech.

— james sullivan, BostonGlobe.com, "Whatever happened to those radical boomer activists from the ’60s and ’70s?," 6 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'soldier.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of soldier

Middle English soudeour, from Anglo-French soudeer, soudeour mercenary, from soudee shilling's worth, wage, from sou, soud shilling, from Late Latin solidus solidus

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

See Words from the same year