lieutenant colonel
/lɛfˈtɛ.nənt ˈkɜː.nəl/
"lieutenant-colonel" is a 17-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lieutenant colonel” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 18
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An army officer in many countries, ranking below a colonel and above a major. Often the commander of a battalion or the executive officer of a regiment.
Corpus desk
Index EN-lieutenant-colonel · lieutenant colonel · English
lieutenant colonel · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 18 letters
- VOW-8 8 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "L" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | lieutenant colonel |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /lɛfˈtɛ.nənt ˈkɜː.nəl/ |
| Letters | 18 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “lieutenant colonel” in English
Rare enough to double-check
lieutenant colonel is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /lɛfˈtɛ.nənt ˈkɜː.nəl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for lieutenant colonel in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is lieutenant colonel, spelled L-I-E-U-T-E-N-A-N-T- -C-O-L-O-N-E-L.
Definition
- 1An army officer in many countries, ranking below a colonel and above a major. Often the commander of a battalion or the executive officer of a regiment.
- 2An English-language term used as a general categorization for military officer ranks that are the equivalent of lieutenant colonel, the relative rank level is found in most countries.
- 3An officer in the United States Marine Corps or Royal Marines, of equivalent rank to their counterparts in the army.
- 4An officer in the United States Air Force, Air Force Reserve, or Air National Guard, ranking below colonel and above major. Often the commander of a squadron or the executive officer of a wing.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.