cadet

noun

ca·​det kə-ˈdet 

plural cadets

1

a

: a younger brother or son

b

: youngest son

c

: a younger branch of a family or a member of it

2

a

: a person in training for a military or naval commission

especially : a student in a service academy

b

: a student at a police academy : a person who is in training to become a police officer

During his swearing-in speech last August, the 54-year-old head cop pointed out that he still wears the same size uniform that he wore when he was a cadet at the Police Academy 34 years ago.

—Bernard C. Parks

3

slang : pimp

cadetship

kə-ˈdet-ˌship 

noun

Synonyms

• fancy man
• pander
• pimp
• procurer

Examples of cadet in a Sentence

the hooker claims she turned all her dough in to her cadet last night

Recent Examples on the Web

The Taiwanese cadet listening to Toynbee was Chan-hui Yeh, a student of electrical engineering at the nearby Virginia Military Institute (VMI). —IEEE Spectrum, 28 May 2024

President Biden will address the graduating class of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, on Saturday, delivering a commencement speech at a moment of military upheaval abroad, university protests at home and a looming White House rematch with former President Donald J. Trump. —Michael D. Shear, New York Times, 25 May 2024

On top of all his other commitments, Alexander and his fellow Army ROTC cadets have personal training starting at 5 a.m. at least three days a week. —Shane Connuck, Charlotte Observer, 25 May 2024

The day after the NBC 7 report, air-quality regulators inspected the San Diego Fire-Rescue facility and found numerous places where training had disturbed tiles and sealing bonds over nearly two decades, exposing cadets and others to the cancer-causing agent. —Jeff McDonald, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 May 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French, going back to Middle French, borrowed from Gascon (15th-century) capdet "chief, captain" (Old Occitan capdel), going back to Vulgar Latin *capitellus "leader," from Latin capit-, caput "head" + -ellus, diminutive suffix, originally from noun stems ending in -ul-, -r-, and -n- — more at head entry 1

Note: Compare capital entry 3, caudillo. In the fifteenth century the younger sons of Gascon nobles, lacking an inheritance, were recruited into the French army to learn the military profession. In this context the Gascon word was loaned into French, but with the sense "younger son," the characteristic feature of these men to the French, rather than with its Gascon meaning. The Gascon connection was soon lost. The -t of capdet shows the peculiar outcome of Latin geminate -ll- in Gascon. The cluster -pd- was simplified in French to -d-.

First Known Use

1610, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing cadet

• space cadet

Kids Definition

cadet

noun

ca·​det kə-ˈdet 

1

: a student military officer

2

: a student at a military school

cadetship

-ˌship 

noun

Etymology

from French cadet "a younger brother or son, one training for military service," derived from Latin capitellum, literally, "little (younger) head or chief," from caput "head" — related to cad, caddie, capital, captain, chief see Word History at caddie