cadet

noun

ca·​det kə-ˈdet 

plural cadets

1

a

: a younger brother or son

b

: youngest son

c

: a younger branch of a family or a member of it

2

a

: a person in training for a military or naval commission

especially : a student in a service academy

b

: a student at a police academy : a person who is in training to become a police officer

During his swearing-in speech last August, the 54-year-old head cop pointed out that he still wears the same size uniform that he wore when he was a cadet at the Police Academy 34 years ago.

—Bernard C. Parks

3

slang : pimp

cadetship

kə-ˈdet-ˌship 

noun

Synonyms

• fancy man
• pander
• pimp
• procurer

Examples of cadet in a Sentence

the hooker claims she turned all her dough in to her cadet last night

Recent Examples on the Web

One key part of the tradition is the message the cadets and midshipmen wear across their backs, which remains confidential until the ceremony. —Matt Weyrich, Baltimore Sun, 14 Dec. 2024

Midshipmen and cadets will compete in four different competitions and the team that wins the most points will be honored at halftime of the football game on Saturday. —Kyle Feldscher, CNN, 13 Dec. 2024

The event is pageantry and patriotism with a revelry of cadets and midshipmen bouncing and cheering for their branch. —Jay Ginsbach, Forbes, 11 Dec. 2024

To allow the superintendent to start conversations with the city about youth cadet programs. To expand the Public Safety Academy, which currently has a fire and EMS program at Western Hills University High School, to Withrow University High School and Sayler Park School. —Madeline Mitchell, The Enquirer, 11 Dec. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French, going back to Middle French, borrowed from Gascon (15th-century) capdet "chief, captain" (Old Occitan capdel), going back to Vulgar Latin *capitellus "leader," from Latin capit-, caput "head" + -ellus, diminutive suffix, originally from noun stems ending in -ul-, -r-, and -n- — more at head entry 1

Note: Compare capital entry 3, caudillo. In the fifteenth century the younger sons of Gascon nobles, lacking an inheritance, were recruited into the French army to learn the military profession. In this context the Gascon word was loaned into French, but with the sense "younger son," the characteristic feature of these men to the French, rather than with its Gascon meaning. The Gascon connection was soon lost. The -t of capdet shows the peculiar outcome of Latin geminate -ll- in Gascon. The cluster -pd- was simplified in French to -d-.

First Known Use

1610, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing cadet

• space cadet

Kids Definition

cadet

noun

ca·​det kə-ˈdet 

1

: a student military officer

2

: a student at a military school

cadetship

-ˌship 

noun

Etymology

from French cadet "a younger brother or son, one training for military service," derived from Latin capitellum, literally, "little (younger) head or chief," from caput "head" — related to cad, caddie, capital, captain, chief see Word History at caddie