service member

noun

variants or less commonly servicemember

ˈsər-vəs-ˌmem-bər 

plural service members also servicemembers

: a person who is a member of the armed forces

Once Federal Judge Martin Barash administered the oath of allegiance and spoke about their new responsibilities and privileges, he singled out each service member by name (the only new citizens offered this recognition), and the crowd responded with standing ovations.

—Smithsonian

For three-quarters of a century, East Helena has proudly honored servicemembers with a monument in the heart of town. And now community leaders are looking for names of area veterans as they rebuild the monument with a new design.

—Tom Kuglin

Examples of service member in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But the debate has been complicated this year by the inclusion of a GOP provision banning TRICARE, the military’s health program, from covering some gender-affirming care for transgender children of service members. —Mike Lillis, The Hill, 11 Dec. 2024

Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day honors the 2,403 service members and civilians killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. —Shelby Slade, The Arizona Republic, 7 Dec. 2024

In June, the number of service members deployed statewide as part of the Counterdrug Task Force, including at ports of entry, more than doubled from 155 to nearly 400, officials said. —Alexandra Mendoza, The Mercury News, 6 Dec. 2024

An Associated Press investigation found Ospreys had been involved in 21 major accidents, the most recent of which occurred in November 2023 in Japan and killed eight service members. —Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News, 26 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1955, in the meaning defined above