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echelon.

A level or rank in an organization, profession, or society.

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɛʃ.ə.lɒn/Received-Pronunciation/ˈeɪ-//ˈɛk.ə.lɒn//ˈɛʃ.əˌlɑn/General-American

  1. A level or rank in an organization, profession, or society.

  2. A line of riders seeking maximum drafting in a crosswind, resulting in a diagonal line across the road.

  3. A formation of troops, ships, aircraft, etc., in diagonal parallel rows.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed 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”).

verb/ˈɛʃ.ə.lɒn/Received-Pronunciation/ˈeɪ-//ˈɛk.ə.lɒn//ˈɛʃ.əˌlɑn/General-American

  1. To form troops into an echelon.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Borrowed 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”).

adj/ˈɛʃ.ə.lɒn/Received-Pronunciation/ˈeɪ-//ˈɛk.ə.lɒn//ˈɛʃ.əˌlɑn/General-American

  1. Of a matrix: having undergone Gaussian elimination with the result that the leading coefficient or pivot (that is, the first nonzero number from the left) of a nonzero row is to the right of the pivot of the row above it, giving rise to a stepped appearance in the matrix.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

Borrowed 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”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.