field marshal

IPA/ˈfiːld mɑːʃl/
IPA/ˈfiːld mɑːrʃl/

field marshal — noun

1. an army officer who holds the most senior rank, sitting above every general and

1.nounC1
Definition

an army officer who holds the most senior rank, sitting above every general and usually given to very few people.

Example

Hugo studied the life of a field marshal who led troops across North Africa.

subject is a senior army leader

The queen promoted the old soldier to field marshal after fifty years of service.

promote someone to field marshal

Common collocations
  • promoted to field marshal
  • rank of field marshal
  • wartime field marshal
Synonyms
  • general

    very senior officer, but one rank below field marshal

  • commander-in-chief

    names the person in overall charge, often a role rather than a fixed rank

Antonyms
  • private

    the lowest rank of soldier

  • recruit

    a brand-new soldier still in training

Usage Note

Subject of this rank is almost always tied to the British army or a few other Commonwealth and European armies; American forces use 'general of the army' instead.

Common Mistakes

He is a field marshal in the navy.
He is a field marshal in the army.
the rank belongs to land forces, not the navy.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

These three words all point to people at the top of an army, but they sit at different levels. A 'field marshal' is a fixed rank and the highest one a British army officer can hold, above every general; it is rare and often given as an honour late in a long career. A 'general' is also very senior and may command large forces, yet still ranks below a field marshal. A 'commander-in-chief' is different again: it names whoever is in overall charge of the armed forces at a given moment, which in many countries is a political leader such as the president, not a career soldier. So a general can be promoted to field marshal, but a commander-in-chief is usually a role, not a step on the military ladder.

field marshal ↗general ↗commander-in-chief

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • promoted to field marshal
  • the rank of field marshal

Prepositions

  • in the army

Etymology

Old High GermanOld FrenchEnglish

The phrase joins 'field', meaning the open ground where battles were once fought, with 'marshal', a word that began as a title for someone who looked after horses and later came to mean a high officer who organises an army. Put together, the term came to name the officer who directs forces in the field, and over time it rose to mean the very highest army rank.

First known use

1736

1736, in the meaning defined above