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cohorts

Military
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Groups of soldiers or followers. In older or literary usage, it often means an organized military force.

Detailed Definition
In Roman history, a cohort was a subdivision of an army, and in poetry the word can broaden to mean an armed company or retinue. Byron uses it for Sennacherib’s invading force, giving the line a formal, martial tone.
Example
Example in poetry:
“And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold” presents a ruler’s organized followers or troops; Cohorts march beneath standards in a Roman scene; Her cohorts are classmates gathering for climate action; Digital cohorts swarm the comment thread at midnight
Additional Notes
The word in the quoted line is a specialized military term, not an everyday synonym for a group.; Found in the poem, The Destruction of Sennacherib by Lord Byron
Also Known As
companions comrades allies associates
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