phalanx
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: anatomy
biology
botany
human-sciences
medicine
natural-sciences
sciences
social-science
sociology
Etymology: Borrowed from Latin phalanx or Ancient Greek φάλαγξ (phálanx, “battle order; array”). Doublet of phalange, planch, plancha, planche, and plank.
Inflected forms:
form: phalanxes
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: phalanges
pos: noun
tags: formal
literary
plural
form: phalanges
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: phalanxes
pos: noun
tags: archaic
plural
proscribed
Senses:
gloss: An ancient Greek and Macedonian military unit that consisted of several ranks and files (lines) of soldiers in close array with joined shields and long spears.
pos: noun
tags: historical
gloss: A large group of people, animals or things, compact or closely massed, or tightly knit and united in common purpose.
pos: noun
examples: The monarch hath gone, but his rocky throne
Still rests on its frowning base;
Its motionless guards rise in phalanx lone,
And nought save the winds through their helmets that moan,
And none but those bosoms and hearts of stone
Sigh o'er a fallen race.
But there was no man to greet them in the market-place, and no woman's face appeared at the windows - only a bodiless voice went before them, calling: "Fallen is Imperial Kôr! - fallen! - fallen! fallen!" On, right through the city, marched those gleaming phalanxes, and the rattle of their bony tread echoed through the silent air as they pressed grimly on.
From Courbevoie to the Hôtel des Invalides, one walked through a hedge of elaborate decorations—of bees, eagles, crowns, N’s; of bucklers, banners, and wreaths bearing the names of famous victories; of urns blazing with incense; of rostral columns; masts bearing trophies of arms and clusters of flags; flaming tripods; allegorical statues; triumphal arches; great banks of seats draped in imperial purple and packed with spectators, and phalanges of soldiers.
Broad phalanx of cars across the bridge moving slowly through the streaming snow.
The Guardian today listed a phalanx of ministers who back the bill, including Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, Tony McNulty, the policing minister, Andy Burnham, the junior health minister, Ian Pearson, the climate change minister, John Healey, the financial secretary to the Treasury, and Keith Hill, parliamentary private secretary to Tony Blair.
There, the Paisleyites were being held back by another phalanx of soldiers and policemen.
For a short time the two phalanges of men faced each other at a distance apart.
The next day, phalanges of soldiers blocked all entrances to the city as rumours that Muslim workers from all around Calcutta would throng the venue of the meeting in protest reached the commissioner of the city Police.
gloss: A Fourierite utopian community; a phalanstery.
pos: noun
tags: historical
examples: [Charles Fourier] calculated that if precisely 1,620 men, women and children were collected in a 6,000-acre phalanx, they would — all by merrily following their individual passions — end up satisfying all the phalanx’s essential needs.
gloss: One of the bones of the finger or toe.
pos: noun
gloss: A bundle of stamens, in diadelphous and polyadelphous flowers.
pos: noun
Related words: phalangal
phalangeal
phalangite
Derived words: distal phalanx
intermediate phalanx
interphalanx
mesophalanx
middle phalanx
proximal phalanx
Translations: