English Explanatory Dictionary

cadet

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A student at a military school who is training to be an officer.
  2. A younger or youngest son, who would not inherit as a firstborn son would.
  3. Junior. (See also the heraldic term cadency.)
  4. A young man who makes a business of ruining girls to put them in brothels.
  5. A young gentleman learning sheep farming at a station; also, any young man attached to a sheep station.
  6. A participant in a cadetship.
name
  1. A surname from French.

Pronunciation

/kəˈdɛt/ En-au-cadet.ogg

Word forms

cadet cadets

Etymology

Borrowed from French cadet, from Gascon capdet, from Late Latin capitellum (“small head”). Attested in English from 1634. Doublet of caddie, cadeau, cadel, capital, capitellum, and caudillo.

Related words

cadette

Derived words

air cadet cadet blue cadet branch cadetcy cadet gray cadet grey cadet house officer cadet space cadet

Translations

Danish: yngre søn French: puîné German: jüngerer Bruder German: jüngerer Sohn Italian: cadetto Polish: junior Walloon: racoulot
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