echelon
A level or rank in an organization, profession, or societyA level or rank in an organization, profession, or society.
» Only the upper echelon has access to the best trainers.
AlanF_US · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
3 sensesA level or rank in an organization, profession, or society.
Stufe, Rang, Skala
звено́zvenó, эшело́нešelón
status in a society or organization
A line of riders seeking maximum drafting in a crosswind, resulting in a diagonal line across the road.
A formation of troops, ships, aircraft, etc., in diagonal parallel rows.
Echelon
эшело́нešelón
ешело́нešelón
Examples
4 sentencesOnly the upper echelon has access to the best trainers.
His artisan bread is of a higher echelon than that found in the grocery stores.
The Queen’s Counsel is the highest echelon of the British Bar.
From plebeian origins, Tom Jackson has quickly risen to the upper echelon of society.
Translations
8 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
By meaning 2
Origin
Borrowed from French échelon (“rung; echelon”), from échelle (“ladder”) + -on (diminutiveBorrowed from French échelon (“rung; echelon”), from échelle (“ladder”) + -on (diminutive suffix). Échelle is derived from Latin scāla (“ladder”), from scandō (“to ascend, climb”), from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to jump”).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: echelonsSynonyms
1 synonymsWord family
9 related wordsSee also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.