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English colonel is pronounced the same as kernel. This seems odd, but there is an explanation. In many languages when a word contains two identical or similar sounds, one of these sounds will often change over a period of time. This kind of change is called dissimilation. So when the Italian word colonello was taken into French, it became coronel; and the word was borrowed by the English from the French in this form. Later the spelling colonel came to be used in order to reflect the Italian origin of the word. But by then the pronunciation with r was well established.
Examples of colonel in a Sentence
Jon Gambrell, Los Angeles Times, 7 Apr. 2025
Mohammed al-Basha, a Yemen expert of the Basha Report risk advisory firm, cited social media condolence notices suggesting that a colonel overseeing police stations for the Houthis in Hodeida had been killed in the strike Trump highlighted, alongside his two brothers.
—Arkansas Online, 7 Apr. 2025
The colonel’s other collections included old schoolroom maps, books, a museum’s worth of vintage toys in what’s now the yoga studio, and old-fashioned canisters—açucar, feijão, arroz, all written in script—in the houses’ kitchens.
—Ann Abel, Forbes.com, 3 Apr. 2025
Trump isn’t bothered by Putin for the ex-KGB colonel’s consistent efforts to meddle in U.S. elections, his unprovoked invasion of a peaceful neighbor and constant threatening of the NATO alliance.
—New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 1 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for colonel
Cite this Entry
“Colonel.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/colonel. Accessed 14 Apr. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
an altered form of earlier coronel "colonel," from early French coronel (same meaning), from early Italian colonnello "colonel, column of soldiers," derived from Latin columna "column" — related to column
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