squadron

From Italian squadrone. See squad.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈskwɒd.ɹən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

squadron (plural squadrons) (abbreviated to: sqn)

1. (obsolete) A body of troops drawn up in a square.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     Those half-rounding guards / Just met, and, closing, stood in squadron joined.

2. (military, historical, army) A body of cavalry comprising two companies or troops, averaging from one hundred and twenty to two hundred soldiers.
3. (military) A body of infantrymen made up of several platoons, averaging from eighty to one hundred and fifty men, and led by a captain or a major.
4. (military, navy) A detachment of vessels employed on any particular service or station, under the command of the senior officer

   the North Atlantic Squadron

5. (military, air force) A tactical air force unit; consists of at least two flights; multiple squadrons make up a group or wing (depending on particular air force).
6. (US, military, U.S. Space Force) A spaceforce unit; multiple squadrons make up an operations delta or a support garrison.

• flying squadron
• intrasquadron
• squaddie / squaddy
• Squadron Leader, squadron leader

• squad

squadron (third-person singular simple present squadrons, present participle squadroning, simple past and past participle squadroned)

1. (transitive) To divide up into squadrons.