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phalanx

[fey-langks, fal-angks]

noun

plural

phalanxes, phalanges 
  1. (in ancient Greece) a group of heavily armed infantry formed in ranks and files close and deep, with shields joined and long spears overlapping.

  2. any body of troops in close array.

  3. a number of individuals, especially persons united for a common purpose.

  4. a compact or closely massed body of persons, animals, or things.

  5. Military.Phalanx, a radar-controlled U.S. Navy 20 mm Gatling-type gun deployed on ships as a last line of defense against antiship cruise missiles.

  6. (in Fourierism) a group of about 1800 persons, living together and holding their property in common.

  7. Anatomy, Zoology.any of the bones of the fingers or toes.



verb (used without object)

  1. Printing.to arrange the distribution of work in a shop as evenly as possible.

phalanx

/ ˈææŋ /

noun

  1. an ancient Greek and Macedonian battle formation of hoplites presenting long spears from behind a wall of overlapping shields

  2. any closely ranked unit or mass of people

    the police formed a phalanx to protect the embassy

  3. a number of people united for a common purpose

  4. (in Fourierism) a group of approximately 1800 persons forming a commune in which all property is collectively owned

  5. anatomy any of the bones of the fingers or toes

  6. botany

    1. a bundle of stamens, joined together by their stalks (filaments)

    2. a form of vegetative spread in which the advance is on a broad front, as in the common reed Compare guerrilla

“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

phalanx

plural

phalanges 
  1. Any of the small bones of the fingers or toes in humans or the digits of many other vertebrates.

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Word History and Origins

Origin of phalanx1

First recorded in 1545–55; from Latin, from Greek áԳ “military formation, bone of finger or toe, wooden roller”
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Word History and Origins

Origin of phalanx1

C16: via Latin from Greek: infantry formation in close ranks, bone of finger or toe
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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

A phalanx of police officers on horseback surround a person who has been knocked to the ground and repeatedly pummeled with batons.

From

Around 1 p.m., a phalanx of National Guard troops charged into the crowd, yelling “push” as they rammed people with riot shields.

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The strikers and their families began to mingle with the phalanx of guardsmen.

From

She uses it to tap fatefully on trees and listen for the tiny movements of tasty grubs within, which she then extracts using those same Nosferatu phalanges.

From

There's a range of reasons why she's so polarizing, and Meghan doesn't have the phalanx of sympathetic insiders in the press that the Windsors do.

From

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