military personnel

Meaning

1. 1nounpluralformal

   The people who serve in a country's armed forces, considered together as a group.

   Grammar: Takes a plural verb: military personnel are, not 'is'. For one person say 'a service member'.

   Patterns

   • military personnel and their families
   • active military personnel

   Military personnel were sent to help after the flood.

   The base provides housing for military personnel and their families.

   Only authorized military personnel may enter this area.

Common combinations

active military personnel

Active military personnel get a discount at the museum.

deploy military personnel

The government deployed military personnel to the border.

military personnel and civilians

The report counted both military personnel and civilians.

retired military personnel

Retired military personnel gathered for the parade.

trained military personnel

Only trained military personnel can handle the equipment.

Synonyms and how they differ

troops

Troops stresses soldiers in groups, especially on duty, whereas military personnel is a neutral, administrative term covering all ranks and services.

service members

Service members is the common American term for individual people in the armed forces and sounds less bureaucratic.

armed forces

Armed forces names the organization itself, not the people in it.

soldiers

Soldiers refers only to the army, but military personnel includes sailors and airmen too.

Opposites

Word family

military adjective

relating to armed forces

personnel noun

the people employed by an organization

militarize verb

to equip with military forces

militarily adverb

in a military manner

Commonly confused: military personnel or personal?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “military personnel”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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